The Spectacular Career 




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Book « ^1^ F 1 P ., 
GopsTigtrt N? 



COFVRIGHT DEPOStE 



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-Vt t K . Z\ 



Spectacular Career of 
Rev. Billy Sunday 

Famous Baseball Evangelist 



BY 



Theodore Thomas Frankenberg 

STAFF OHIO STATE JOURNAL 
AUTHOR "ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM,'' ETC. 



McClelland & company, publishers 
columbus, ohio 



<N_ 






Copyrighted, 1913, 

By George V. Sheridan and T. T. Frankenberg. 

All Rights Reserved. 



PRESS OF 

The F. J. Heer 
Printing Co. 




CiA361397 






INTRODUCTION 



TN offering to the world the first comprehensive 
biography of Rev. W. A. Sunday, the famous 
evangelist, it is necessary at the very outset to 
absolve Mr. Sunday from any responsibility for the 
venture or any interest in it. 

Mr. Sunday has been repeatedly and unjustly ac- 
cused of petty machinations for profit and gain, there- 
fore, this statement is justly due him. 

Mr. Sunday derives no revenue from any of the 
several publications which are sold during his cam- 
paigns, with the exception of pamphlet formed edi- 
tions of four of his sermons, and all of this money 
he gives to charity. It is true, that Mr. Sunday did 
consider at the outset being interested in the present 
publication, but as it began to grow and take form 
with the gathering of data; and as the importance of 
the work, and its wide-spread demand became more 
and more apparent, it was felt that proper delicacy 
on the evangelist's part would not permit of his con- 
nection with the enterprise. It became obviously 
necessary to say so many things of an extremely 
laudatory nature, that any participation of the evan- 
gelist in the work, would have been subjected to gross 
misconstruction. 

On the other hand, fidelity to the public de- 
manded the incorporation of certain things upon 
which the public's view and the evangelist's have not 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION 

always coincided. Mr. Sunday has been for some- 
time compiling data concerning his work, and this 
will probably at some time appear in book form. 

The necessary autobiographical nature of his 
work will have an interest from which no other book 
can detract, but which will hardly have the degree of 
self-laudation, which a large reflex of his life and 
work must possess. 

The author is under many obligations to dozens, 
and even hundreds of persons who' have contributed 
facts and information herein incorporated. He has, 
so far as possible, studiously avoided any expression 
or editorial opinion; confining himself to facts or to 
quotations directly from persons informed, or from 
official records. 

An important part of this work is a list of names 
and addresses of all those who have furnished in- 
formation, incorporated in this work, and whose tes- 
timony is a sufficient index to the truth and reliabil- 
ity of the present undertaking. 

In a work of this kind it is too much to hope that 
errors have not crept in. They are, however, the 
errors which arise from differences of opinion or the 
occasional necessity of accepting a report which could 
not be verified definitely. The list of authorities cited 
in the back of the book will enable those who are in- 
terested, to pursue further investigation of Rev. Mr. 
Sunday's career on their own account. 

To all these, and others who may not be directly 
quoted, the author makes heartfelt acknowledgment. 
Assured by the many kindly indications of interest 



INTRODUCTION O 

which have come from all parts of the country that 
the book will have a considerable welcome, the author 
commends it to the attention of the thousands of ad- 
mirers of Rev. Billy Sunday everywhere in the United 
States. 

Theodore Thomas Frankenberg, 
Columbus, Ohio, 
November, 191 3. 



Se 




Dk. J. WlJ.IU'K Ch.' 



Photo by Baker. 



\PMAN. 



FOREWARD 

1HAVE the very greatest possible joy and delight 
in the successful ministry of the Rev. W. A. 
Sunday. I consider him one of the most gen- 
uine, true-hearted men I have ever known and be- 
lieve that he has almost in perfection what every 
minister must have if he is to be a success in his 
preaching, namely, a consuming passion, that all who 
do not know Christ should accept Him as a Saviour. 
It is, of course, not possible for everyone to 
possess the remarkable gifts with which Mr. Sun- 
day has been naturally endowed, but it is pos- 
sible to be dead in earnest, and without in any 
way detracting from Mr. Sunday's mental, physical 
and spiritual equipment, I shall not be misun- 
derstood when I say that much of his phenomenal 
success is to be traced to his downright earnestness. 
A half-hearted minister has never yet done much in 
the cause of Christ, and Mr. Sunday is setting the 
ministers of the United States and the world a noble 
example in thus throwing himself into his great work 
with such tremendous zeal. I do not know how long 
he can last if he continues working under such heavy 
pressure, but I have no doubt that he has counted 
the cost and that he has fully decided that it will be 
far better for him to preach for a limited time as he 
is now preaching and have the consciousness that he 
is being blessed of God in his work, and turning mul- 

7 



8 THE FOREWORD 

titudes to Christ rather than to live a less strenuous 
life and see a fewer number come to the Savior. 

If a fair proportion of the ministers of the 
Church would preach with the same spirit of aban- 
donment which possesses Mr. Sunday I believe all 
the world would hear of Christ in a generation. It is 
one of my great joys to realize that I may have had 
some influence in determining Mr. Sunday's life 
work. He came to me many years ago to help in my 
services. He was ready to do anything if only he 
could be of assistance to me, to sell books, to direct 
the ushers, to look after the inquirers, to make my 
burdens lighter in every way, and he had the same 
hearty enthusiasm in doing such ordinary things as he 
has since displayed in his most remarkable work. 

One day in Urbana, Ohio, I had a request from 
someone out of town for a speaker, and I asked Mr. 
Sunday to accept the invitation. He seemed greatly 
frightened, said that he could not speak and that he 
was not the man for the place. Finally it was de- 
termined that he should tell the story of his conver- 
sion. Following that day's services the most inter- 
esting reports were made to me of the impression 
which he had made upon his audience, and I then had 
the conviction that he ought to do more of this sort of 
work, and I suggested to him that he ought to go to 
a number of places and stay for a week's meetings. 
When he told me that he did not have sermons I 
asked him to make use of anything that he had heard 
me say, and told him that I should feel highly honored 
at his doing so. It was thus that he started, so far 
as I can remember. His successful work from that 
day to this needs no descriptive word of mine for how- 



THE FOREWORD V 

ever much men may differ with him as regards 
method, all will agree if they know him at all that he 
is absolutely honest and sincere as well as being a 
truly great man. 1 consider Mr. Sunday very gen- 
erous. I cannot think of any time that he has met 
me and had opportunity for conversation that he has 
not said to me — "Do you need any money?" And 
that he has not told me that if I did need it he would 
gladly give it to me. Fortunately for me and possibly 
for him I have not found it necessary to accept his 
kind offers of monetary gifts, but he has never made 
the suggestion that I have not had a glimpse of his 
great and generout heart. 

It is a matter of small concern to me as to what 
methods Mr. Sunday may use. I am not at all dis- 
turbed that he should be working plans which are 
exactly the opposite of my own. Sam Jones never 
said a better thing than when he said, "God never 
made two men alike without making one of them a 
fool." I am filled with rejoicing that Mr. Sunday is 
just himself, honest, sincere, noble, devoted to Christ 
and filled with an intense longing to see others accept 
Him as their Saviour, and I shall ever pray that God 
may long spare him for his work, and that his career 
of usefulness may be greater and greater as the days 
pass by. 

It has been my privilege to influence a number of 
men to enter the ministry, and my great joy to en- 
courage not a few to take up evangelistic work, and 
insofar as I have been able to do so I have sought 
to encourage them in their efforts, and give to them 
unsparingly of my influence that their work might be 
owned and blessed of God, but of all with whom I 



10 THE FOREWORD 

have come in contact I must say that I am more 
grateful to God for Mr. Sunday and for his ministry 
than I can ever express in words. God bless him, 
and more and more mightily use him is my prayer. 

J. Wilbur Chapman. 
October, 1913. 
3 Park Gardens, W., Glasgow, Scotland. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter Page 

Foreword — By Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman . . 7 

I. The Man — Who He Is 13 

II. Orphaned Son of an Iowa Patriot ... 25 

III. The Boy's Struggle Upwards 89 

IV. A Star of the White Sox 49 

V. The Memorable Night in Van Buren Street 61 

VI. Courting Nell 73 

VII. Applied Christianity at $83 per month . . 79 

VIII. Tents, Tabernacles and Other Things . . 87 

IX. The Philosophy of Sunday's Revival Cam- 
paigns 97 

X. Some Who Have Assisted 113 

XI. Some Great Campaigns 123 

XII. Some Greater Campaigns 141 

XIII. The Gladden-Sunday Controversy .... 159 

XIV. Ma 175 

XV. The Human Side of the Evangelist . . . 189 

XVI. Episodes, Incidents, Comment and Quotations 203 

Appendix 229 



11 



CHAPTER I 



THE MAN — WHO HE IS 

How evangelists come by their ranking — Motives that 
operate, standards that change — Dr. Green in Hamp- 
ton's Magazine — Lindsay Denison in the American 
Magazine — Bruce Barton gives views in Collier's — 
Quotations from the daily and from the religious 
press. 

13 



CHAPTER I 



•yy ■ HAT does it mean to be ranked with Wesley 
A C I and with Luther ; Savonarola and with 
^^r Peter the Hermit? Yes, to be coupled with 
the Twelve who walked with the lowly Nazarene? 

Either it means a Wonder Man marked through 
all the ages, or it means a greatly exaggerated and 
distorted vision, due to proximity to the object ad- 
mired. 

At fifty the world's judgment of a man usually 
is the one that will endure. The stroke oar of Har- 
vard fades into the inconspicuous haunts of a small 
town high school, or the Princeton half-back is for- 
gotten in the petty politics of a western country. The 
winner of the Marathon — who recalls his name after 
the lapse of the first Olympiad? The fame that 
comes in youth is more often than not of a transitory 
nature. The man of fifty, who is beginning to re- 
ceive the acclaim of his fellows, and serious com- 
mendation, as well a vituperative opposition, is one 
who has built on a sure foundation, and has come 
from little to more, and from great to greater through 
a natural method and evolution, which has given the 
strength and stamina that will endure in the way of 
reputation after the life itself has gone out. 

How far it is fitting and correct to consider Rev. 
William Ashley Sunday, familiarly known as "Billy" 
Sunday, the base-ball evangelist, the greatest living 
evangelist and possibly the greatest since the days of 

15 



16 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Pentecost, is a question well worthy of serious con- 
sideration in the light of all the facts that can be 
adduced. 

The merest statement of his accredited accom- 
plishments is startling. More than loo series of meet- 
ings held throughout the length and breadth of the 
land, resulting in the professed conversion of more 
than 200,000 souls, is a record which, on its face, 
will challenge comparison with the most conspicuous 
in ancient or modern history. To establish the jus- 
tice of comparison, it is not necessary to go into the 
merit of the methods employed, nor the motives that 
have operated — to do this, would be to vitiate all 
standards and compel history to be rewritten from 
the time when Constantine swung an empire into the 
Christian fold and became an object of suspicion for 
all succeeding generations. 

Early missionaries who made their way north 
from Italy into the wilds of Gaul, Germany and the 
British Isles are accredited with wonderful results 
in converting the natives to the Christian faith. Yet, 
it is admitted history that in many instances, a tribe 
or clan followed blindly in the wake of its leader and 
religious observances were laid on and off like a 
mantle. Neither will the history of the modern 
church stand scrutiny if the inner motives that 
prompted all of the leaders are questioned in the 
light of high moral standards. Henry VIII divorced 
England from the Roman church that he might di- 
vorce himself from an objectionable wife. The 
princes of Northern Germany espoused the cause of 
Luther, because it gave them a pretext to war against 
the domination of the House of Austria. Yet, in the 



THE MAN — WHO IS HE 17 

history of the world and the advance of religion, all 
of these men and their actions have played impor- 
tant and lasting parts. 

Criticism, is, and always has been directed against 
the methods and the results achieved in evangelical 
and general Christian work. An unbiased contempla- 
tion of history simply compels the conclusion that 
there are at the present time no recognized standards 
whereby the work of various men in various ages 
may be measured honestly. 

It is only possible, therefore, to estimate Rev. Mr. 
Sunday by comparing his admitted achievements with 
the accredited achievements of the great historical 
evangelists, and with these it would seem that he 
ranks in every way a peer. Coming from the com- 
parative obscurity of what is generally known as the 
Middle West, he has in late years challenged the at- 
tention of the entire country, and there has been de- 
voted to him recently a considerable amount of dis- 
interested attention from which a consensus of judg- 
ment can be established. 

As early as June 19 lo Dr. Thomas E. Green, 
writing in Hampton's magazine, said, after an ex- 
tended description of the man's manners: 

That's Billy Sunday, America's great evan- 
gelist. On the platform he "plays ball." Attitude, 
gestures, methods — he crouches, rushes, whirls, 
bangs his message out, as if he were at the bat 
in the last inning, with two men out and the bases 
full. And he can go into any city in America and 
for six weeks talk to six thousand people twice a 
day and simply turn that community inside out. 

2 



18 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Over 300,000 people have been "converted" under 
his preaching — and he says, ninety per cent of 
them stick. 

Even earlier than that Lindsay Denison writing 
in the September 1907 number of the American Mag- 
azine, without making a pretense to direct interest in 
religion, nor posing as an authority on that subject, 
said: 

I have seen many a university foot-ball vic- 
tory celebration ; I have seen several riots of 
joy after a Yale-Harvard boat race; I was in the 
headquarters of District Attorney Jerome of New 
York when the word came, on election night, that 
he had beaten independently the candidates of all 
the regular parties. But I have never seen any 
crowd more beside itself than was the congrega- 
tion of the tabernacle when the meeting was over. 
The noise was inchoate until Fred Fischer took 
charge and organized it. There were a hundred 
dangerous rushes by people at the back to reach 
the platform and Bill Sunday. Fischer got them 
singing. When they were tired of singing a tune, 
he asked them to whistle it and then to hum it. 
Now and then somebody got up and interrupted 
by calling for three cheers for Billy Sunday ! And 
when it was announced that altogether Sunday had 
won 1,118 Fairfield souls from the Devil for Christ 
it seemed as though the roof was tugging at the 
rafters. 

After the remarkable work in Columbus the 
larger magazines began to give more and more at- 
tention to the career of this evangelist. Bruce Barton 
was assigned by Collier's to make a close study of the 
man and his method, and in the spring of 1913 he 
made this summing up : 



THE MAN WHO IS HE 19 

It's fourteenth-century theology, you say, and 
perhaps that's true. But there is no cant in it. 
It is the hard-hitting message of a strong man, 
stirred to the depths of his soul by the spectacle 
of puny, impotent, mortal men setting themselves 
in revolt against the purpose of Almighty God. 
And men respond to it — the leading men of the 
city — editors, merchants, bankers, as well as the 
rank and file. No other evangelist owes so little 
of his success to emotionalism ; none other can 
number a larger proportion of men and women on 
his convert rolls. 

You must hear him more than once to know 
his power ; indeed it takes quite the cumulative ef- 
fect of his meetings, night after night, to represent 
him adequately. The particular sermon that you 
may hear may seem to you overdrawn, even futile; 
the immediate effect of it on the converts who come 
forward may appear all out of proportion to its 
worth. You should have heard them all. I heard 
him once in a little town in Central Illinois — a 
rainy night, when he spoke with difficulty and, to 
my mind, poorly. "Surely," I said to myself, "this 
is an off night for Billy; there'll be no response 
to a sermon like that." And yet he had hardly 
concluded when the converts came trooping toward 
the platform, and the first man among them the 
president of the local gas company. 

It is the hammer, hammer, hammer of six 
or seven weeks of man-to-man talk that compels 
results. 

And the results — what are they? 

In Decatur, 111., he labored six weeks, and 
more than 5,000 persons pressed forward to take 
his hand — the sign of their intention to begin 
another life. The meetings closed on the eve of 
a local option election. On the morning after the 
election, when the result of the overwhelming vote 



20 



REV. BILLY SUNDAY 



was known, there appeared this sign in the front 
window of one of the most prominent saloons : 



Closed Until Further Notice, 

By order of 

Billy Sunday. 



The Herald, a newspaper in Decatur, had 
for years served the interests of the local Re- 
publican machine with a fidelity that was as un- 
swerving as it was conscienceless. For the stars 
to reverse themselves in their orbits would have 
caused no greater surprise in Decatur than for the 
Herald to bolt the machine ticket. Yet after 
the meetings the Herald did bolt, and declared 
itself in favor of the Democratic candidate for 
Mayor, nominated on a reform platform. "The in- 
fluence of that paper, conducted as it is," said one 
of the thoughtful men of Decatur, "is worth $500,- 
000 to this town; and Sunday did it." 

In the same article occurs another paragraph that 
refers to a paper in the City of Columbus : 

The Ohio State Journal was compelled to 
deny editorially that its first-page columns, which 
were given over every morning to the meetings, 
as well as the whole second page, had been pur- 
chased by the Sunday organization. "We never re- 
ceived a cent," it said, "never expect to ; would not 
take it if it were offered. Devoting so much space 
to Billy Sunday is newspaper business, pure and 
simple. The people want to read what he says. 
In all our experience we never knew of such uni- 
versal desire to read something as there is to read 
Mr. Sunday's sermons. Therefore we print them." 



THE MAN WHO IS HE 21 

Think of that from a leading newspaper in a city 
of nearly 200,000, with all its thousand conflicting 
interests. 

Mr. Barton seems to lay particular stress upon 
the importance of newspapers when it comes to es- 
timating the work of a revivalist, as he is at some 
pains to quote a third instance of the same general 
type, reproducing the following publisher's notice 
which appeared on the front page of the McKees- 
port, Pa. Times when the Sunday campaign closed 
there in the fall of 1912: 

From this date forward the Evening Times 
will not accept the advertisement of any distiller, 
brewer, or wholesale or retail liquor dealer. This 
rule is made a part of the policy of the advertising 
department of this newspaper. 

From this date forward the Evening Times 
will not accept the advertisement of any manu- 
facturer or seller of remedies for diseases caused 
by vice, appliances or preparations that are against 
morality and good public policy, of practitioners 
who prey upon the credulity and fear of youth, 
or of compounds of the "make beer at home" sort. 
A few advertisements that come under these last 
headings are now running in the Evening Times 
under contract, but such arrangements will be dis- 
continued at the earhest possible day. 

It is the desire of the management of this 
newspaper that it shall be a force for the better- 
ment of its city and district, and no effort will be 
spared to make and keep its columns so clean that 
it may be read every day with entire safety and 
real benefit by persons of all ages and both sexes. 

McKeesport Times Company, 
By William B. Kay, 

General Manager. 



22 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

So much for the secular press. In conclusion, it 
is interesting to quote from the well known Congre- 
gationalist which because of the attitude of certain 
ministers in that denomination was popularly sup- 
posed to be opposed to I\Ir. Sunday. In an editorial 
of its issue in April 1913, it said: 

Who can help rejoicing when the inertia and 
indifference of years gives w^ly to love for God 
and the service of others, when men who have 
lived long in the under-world and have become 
besotted and brutal are totally reconstructed. Hu- 
manly speaking, Mr. Sunday effects such results 
in countless cases and, humanly speaking, these 
changes would not be likeh^ to come about without 
him. And who can doubt that along with increas- 
ing reliance upon cultural methods we need also 
to preach and to stand for a gospel that radically 
and often changes the inner life. Many men and 
women in middle life today are far beyond the 
reach of cultural methods. The}- need the sound- 
ing of a trumpet which will awaken them from 
their sleep. It is significant that, as a rule, those 
who work with Mr. Sunday from the beginning 
to the end of a campaign reach a point where they 
are more inclined to appreciation than to criticism 
or condemnation. 

No eftort is here made to cite unnumbered com- 
mendations from the press of the cities in which Mr. 
Sunday has labored, for the purpose of establishing 
his standing as an evangelist. They would be open to 
criticism of possible bias. National magazines, edited 
with a view of giving truth as nearly as they can by 
securing authentic information for thousands who 
have no opportunity for first-hand observation, have 
seen fit to endorse this man in no unmeasured terms, 



THE MAN WHO IS HE 23 

and to verify for themselves the statements of the 
daily press in the various communities where Mr. 
Sunday has labored. Students of history will know 
the accomplishments of the great evangelist of all 
ages, and those who are not thus informed will be 
content with the statement from these persons as au- 
thority, that never in the history of the Christian 
faith have more men and women been moved to make 
an expression of their faith in the gospel teachings, 
than have resulted from the ministrations of this re- 
markable man. 

These are the fruits of his labors as he com- 
pletes the cycle of a half century of life. They are 
not sudden or spasmodic expression of opinion ; rather 
in some instances they seem to have been grudgingly 
given, or seem to indicate that the person making 
them had first to be persuaded of their truth himself. 

Concerning such a man, it may be worth while 
to question further of his life and work. 



CHAPTER II 



ORPHANED SON OF AN IOWA PATRIOT 

Ancestry of the Sunday family — Born in Iowa — Father 
dies without seeing his son — Life in an orphan asy- 
lum — What the superintendent says — Early childish 
escapades — Caring for ponies and going to school — 
What Billy's mother has to say about her famous son. 

25 



CHAPTER II 



^y OD makes few exceptions to the general rule in 
m^k preparing His great men for the world. 
VJi Almost invariably they come from the soil and 
from humble origin — yet the stock is always good. 
The seclusion of the Kentucky mountains, and the 
grinding poverty of a small cabin, could not hide the 
blood that flowed in Abraham Lincoln's veins. Gar- 
field on a tow-path was a true descendant of the 
Revolution. The rule holds with most of the truly 
great who have preached the Inspired Word, and 
Rev. W. A. Sunday is no exception. 

Ames, Iowa, still a very little place after more 
than seventy-five years of municipal existence, claims 
the birthplace of the evangelist, and so hard pressed 
and lacking in comfort were those early days, that 
Mr. Sunday seldom refers to them except in general 
terms, or to point some pertinent lessons in the dis- 
course he has in hand. 

The Sunday family is an old one, even in this 
country. Before the days of its residency in Penn- 
sylvania the family lived in Germany. The German 
form of the name was Sonntag, and this was literally 
translated into "Sunday" before the Revolutionary 
days. This, in itself, explains and refutes the scur- 
rilous charge sometimes made, that the evangelist mas- 
querades under an assumed name. The Pennsylvania 

27 



28 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

archives show that several of the Sunday family 
served in the Revolutionary war. 

In an address delivered at a meeting in Pennsyl- 
vania Mr. Sunday took occasion to refer to his an- 
cestry in these words: 

My grandmother on my mother's side was 
Welsh; my father was a German, born near Cham- 
bersburg — and you can't find a triumvirate of an- 
cestors for any man to be more proud of than that. 

Some years before the outbreak of the civil war 
William Sunday, father of the evangelist, moved with 
his family from Chambersburg, Pa., and settled in 
Iowa. Father and grandfather were farmers and 
tilled the soil. It is the frequent boast of Rev. Mr. 
Sunday that at the age of nine, he held a man's place 
in the harvest field and did a full day's work with the 
rest of the hands. 

With the outbreak of the civil war William Sun- 
day, the evangelist's father, like so many other Iowa 
patriots answered the early call for troops. Quoting 
from the records of the United States Department of 
War Adjutant General H. O. S. Heistand, says: 

The records show that William Sunday was 
enrolled August 14, 1862, at Des Moines, Iowa, 
and was mustered into service September 19, 1862, 
as a private in Company E, 23d Iowa Infantry 
Volunteers, to serve three years, and that he died 
of disease December 22, 1862, at Patterson, Mis- 
souri. 

Mr. Sunday never saw his father. On the 19th 
of November, 1862 he was born, the third of three 
boys. Before he was two months old he was an 



ORPHANED SON OF AN IOWA PATRIOT 29 

orphan. The other Children were Albert and Edward. 
Just how much the evangelist values these things in 
his estimate of life, is shown in one of his well known 
sermons in which he says : 

I have as much to be proud of as to lineage 
as any one ; my great-grandfather was in the revolu- 
tionary war, and my daughter is eligible to the 
D. A. R. General U. S. Grant was a fourth cousin 
of mine. My grandfather and he played together, 
ate out of the same tin pans. When he was elected 
president he wrote a letter to my grandfather ask- 
ing him to go down to Washington for a three 
weeks' visit. I've seen the letter. That don't get 
me anything, though. 

This grandfather was one of the guiding influ- 
ences of the boy's life, and was possibly second to his 
mother, to whom, in common with most great men, 
he ascribes practically all that he is. The grandfather 
was an orchardist, and also a worker in wood — very 
frequently referred to in Mr. Sunday's sermons, as 
a maker of caskets. 

How hard the first few years were, probably even 
the evangelist does not know. The meager pension 
which the government allowed was not sufficient for 
the maintenance of a family of four and, accordingly, 
at an early age the mother decided that she would 
have to send the two younger boys to an orphan 
asylum. Nothing could be more effective than the 
evangelist's own description of the parting, which 
he uses frequently in his sermons, and which seems, 
naturally enough, to have made a very deep impres- 
sion on his young mind. 



30 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

At Ames, Iowa, he says, we had to wait for 
the train and we went to a little hotel and they 
came about one o'clock and said : ''Get ready for 
the train." I looked into mother's face, and her 
eyes were red, her hair was disheveled. I said : 
"What's the matter mother?" All the time Ed and 
I slept. Mother had been praying. 

We went to the train; she put one arm about 
me and the other about Ed and sobbed as if her 
heart would break. People walked by and looked 
at us, but they didn't say a word. Why? They 
didn't know, and if they did, they wouldn't have 
cared. Mother knew. She knew that for five years 
she wouldn't see her boys. We got into the train 
and said "Good-bye mother," as the train pulled out. 

We reached Council Bluffs. It was cold and 
we turned our little thin coats around our necks 
and shivered. We saw a hotel and went up and 
asked a lady for something to eat. She said : 
"What's your name?" 

"My name is Willie Sunday and this is my 
brother Ed." 

"Where are you going?" 

"Going to the Soldiers' Orphans' home at 
Glenwood," I said. 

She wiped her tears and said : "My husband 
was a soldier and never came back. He wouldn't 
turn anyone away, and I wouldn't turn you boys 
away." She threv^ her arms about us and said: 
"Come on in." She gave us our breakfast and our 
dinner, too. There wasn't any train going out on 
the "Q" until afternoon. We played around the 
freight yards. We saw a freight train standing 
there, so we climbed into the caboose. 

The conductor came along and said : 

"Where is your money?" "Ain't got any." 

"Where is your ticket?" "Ain't got any ticket." 
"You can't ride without money or tickets, I'll have 
to put you off." 



ORPHANED SON OF AN IOWA PATRIOT 31 

We commenced to cry. My brother handed 
him a letter of introduction to the superintendent 
of the orphans' home. The conductor read it, 
handed it back as the tears rolled down his cheeks. 
Then he said: "Just sit still boys. It won't cost 
you a cent to ride on my train." 

It's only 20 miles from Council Bluffs to Glen- 
wood, and, as we rounded the curve, the conductor 
said : "There it is on the hill." We went there and 
stayed for years. 

The institution at Glenwood was conducted by 
the state and was subsequently used for other pur- 
poses than an orphans' home. All the children were 
transferred to the newer institution at Davenport. 
F. J. Sessions, Superintendent of the Soldiers' Or- 
phans' Home, at Davenport, says: 

Howard E. and William A. Sunday were ad- 
mitted to this institution by transfer from the 
Glenwood, Iowa, Soldiers' Orphans' Home when 
the latter was closed January 29, 1875. They were 
admitted to the Glenwood institution September 25, 
1874. Dismissed from this institution, June 10, 1876. 
The record says to go home, but place is not 
located. 

William A. Sunday, according to our record, 
was born November 18, 1862. His father, William 
Sunday, belonged to Company E, 23d Iowa In- 
fantry. He died of disease near Pilot Mound, 
Missouri, December 23, 1862. 

S. W. Pierce, who was superintendent of the 
Home when the Sunday boys were there, is still living, 
an old man, at Davenport. His recollections, though 
limited, are clear on the boyhood days of the evan- 
gelist. 



32 REV. BILLY SUXDAY 

He says : *''He was always obedient, indus- 
trious and active at work or at play. He was a 
good student, and loved and respected by those 
who had the care of and training of him." 

The years before being sent to the orphans" 
asylum were not without their value in their impres- 
sions upon the future evangelist, nor does he fail to 
make frequent references to some of them. An early 
penchant for swimming and the disaster that followed 
an unauthorized attempt to gratify the inclination, is 
made the subject of a forceful illustration in one of 
his sermons. He represents himself as saying: 

"]SIa, I want to go swimming." She said, 
"No, Willie, it's baking day, and 3-ou must bring in 
cobs and chips." We used to have an old dish pan 
with holes in it, and I would fill it with cobs and 
chips and bring them in. I went and got some, and 
while I was at it I heard the fellows shouting up at 
the swimming hole. I took the old pan in, then I 
ducked. I went up and watched the other fellows 
awhile, then I said to myself, "Oh, but it's hot I" 
So I took off my clothes and went in and paddled 
around on a sandbar and picked up mussel shells. 
Before I knew it I stepped off into 10 feet of water. 
I couldn't keep myself up and I went down and 
got a mouthful of water. I felt that I was going 
to drown. I had heard that when a man drowns 
he thinks of all the mean things he has ever 
done, and I know I thought of a lot of things 
right there. I had heard that you would go down 
three times, and that when you went down the third 
time you would die. I came up once then went 
down for the second time. Again I came up gasp- 
ing and choking, then I went dovm for the third 
time. 



ORPHANED SON OF AN IOWA PATRIOT 33 

It happened that there was a man lying on the 
bank just about asleep. I didn't know he was there. 
When he heard them shouting out, "Willie's drown- 
ing!" he jumped up just in time to see me go down 
for the last time. He went in after me and groped 
around on the bottom and found me. I was un- 
conscious when they took me out. They stood me 
on my head and let some of the water run out of 
me, then they laid me down and worked my arms 
to start me to breathing again. They started to 
carry me home, and I came to myself and said, 
"I want to go to my mamma. Oh ! I'm so sick at 
my stomach! E-yah-ah!" and up came a lot of 
water. Mother had missed me, and she was out 
calling, "Wil-lie ! Wil-lie !" They took me in and 
put me to bed, and mother put a plaster on me. 
She ought to have put a plaster on me somewhere 
else. Do you know that incident made such an im- 
pression on. me that I was a good boy for — for I 
reckon as much as two weeks. 

Another familiar incident of these early days in 
which his grandfather figures which he frequently 
tells in another sermon indicates the activities of the 
farm. He describes it as follows: 

When I was a little boy my grandfather said 
to me: "Willie, come on," and he took a ladder, 
and beeswax, a big jack-knife, a saw and some 
cloth, and we went into the valley. He leaned the 
ladder to a sour crab-apple tree, climbed up and 
sawed off some of the limbs, split them and shoved 
in them some little pear sprouts as big as my finger 
and twice as long, and around them he tied a 
string and put in some beeswax. I said, "Grandpa, 
what are you doing?" He said, "I'm grafting pear 
sprouts into the sour crab." I said, "What will 
grow crab-apples or pears?" He said, "Pears, I 
3 



34 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

don't know that I'll ever live to eat the pear — I 
hope I may — but I know you will." I lived to see 
those sprouts which were no longer than my finger 
grow as large as my limb and I climbed the tree 
and picked and ate the pears. He introduced a 
graft of another variety and that changed the nature 
of the tree. 

Shortly after he left the asylum young Sunday 
came to Nevada, Iowa, where he was given a home 
with Colonel John Scott, a veteran of the Union 
army, who at one time served his state as lieutenant 
governor. Colonel Scott was a breeder of Shetland 
ponies, and the boy helped to care for them in return 
for his board and clothes. 

Charles H. Hall, mayor of Nevada, and one of 
the many loyal supporters of the evangelist in that 
town, is always glad to talk of the man who has 
brought fame to their little place. In a letter he says : 

Bill Sunday, in boyhood days, was no angel, 
but was a good, average, energetic boy. He was 
fond of all kinds of sports. He had a record of 
running 100 yards in 10 seconds ; a fine swimmer, 
and could out-jump any of the other boys. Many 
people here insist that the world has never pro- 
duced as good a ball-player. His position was 
center field. He was a sure batter and a good base- 
runner. What was a one-base hit for others, was 
a two-bagger for him. In a game at Marshalltown, 
Iowa, Captain Anson, from Chicago, saw him work 
and took him back with him to Chicago, where he 
played on the Chicago team. 

Billy liked the girls and was a favorite among 
them. He was popular also with his boy associates. 
He was fair-minded, and never stirred up strife. 
He was never looking for trouble, but would fight 



ORPHANED SON OF AN IOWA PATRIOT 35 

at the drop of the hat if imposed upon. He dis- 
played no traits in youth of becoming the preacher 
he now is. 

Finally there is the judgment of his miothier. 
After more than 50 years acquaintance with the man 
who is a mystery to so many thousands, Mrs. W. J. 
Stowe gives a vivid word picture of the boyhood days 
of the evangeHst, coupled invariably with the loving 
comments of a fond mother. 

Whenever one speaks of her evangelist son her 
face lights up with a smile and she invariably re- 
marks : 

"Willie is a good boy. He was always so." 
li one continues to discuss the evangelist, his 
mother is sure to tell of some of the amusing 
incidents that happened during Willie's boyhood, 
when but a little lad he ran free over his grand- 
father's farm in Story county, Iowa. The farm 
was located near Ames, not far from the agricul- 
tural school of that name, and was owned by the 
evangelist's grandfather, "Squire" J. E. Cory, who 
was a typical pioneer of the Middle West. "Squire" 
Cory, until a year before his death at the age of 
72, never thought of climbing to the back of one of 
his horses from a block, but instead he would grasp 
the pommel and leap into the saddle in true 
western fashion without touching the stirrup. 
According to his mother, Billy was the pride of his 
grandfather's heart and was taught many of his 
boyish athletic tricks by him. When but a mere 
baby the "Squire" would place the boy upon his 
outstretched hand and raise him high in the air. 
"Willie would just stand there as straight as an 
arrow and never make a whimper," says his mother 
with just a touch of pride in her voice when she 
tells about it. "He was a great favorite with his 
grandpa because he was such an active little chap." 



36 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Since the time the evangelist has been old 
enough to walk he has been fond of dogs. His 
mother tells of his favorite childhood pet, a big 
shepherd named "Watch." 

"I can remember when Willie used to go to 
the pasture every evening for me and bring home 
the cows," she says. "Seems that I can almost see 
him now, coming down the lane astride of the cows, 
whistling or singing, while Watch took care to see 
that none of the cattle strayed from the herd. He 
surely loved that dog and I don't hardly think that 
he has forgotten his old playmate yet, although he 
has had several such pets since. 

"Yes, Willie was always a good boy to work. 
Did you ask if he has always worked like he does 
now? I guess he has. When, just a boy he would 
go after things pell-mell and it seemed that he 
always had an extra supply of energy. Some might 
call his methods nervousness but it appears to me 
just the way he is made because he has been the 
same ever since I can remember. 

"I don't think Willie shall ever have what you 
call a nervous breakdown. Even though he works 
ever so hard it is just his fashion and I guess he 
can stand it. He is built peculiarly, that is why 
so many people do not understand him when they 
meet or watch him. At times, I know he seems to 
be snappy, but it is his style when he is busy and he 
has no idea he is hurting the feelings of any one. 
He was just the same when he was a boy. He 
always put his whole soul into everything that he 
did, whether it was work or play. I guess that is 
what has helped to make him the man he is. 

"Willie always liked to play games where he 
could show his strength, for he was a strong 
little lad. I can remember that many times before 
he was ten years old he would go down to the 
college where the boys were playing ball and get in 
the game with them. I guess he was pretty good 



U 



ORPHANED SON OF AN IOWA PATRIOT 37 

at baseball even then. After his grandfather died 
he and Ed — Ed is his brother who lives out in 
North Dakota — went to school at Marshalltown. 
My, but I missed my children so much. 

Their father had died during the civil war 
while serving in the 23d Iowa down south, and he 
never got to see Willie, His name was Willie, too, 
and we named the baby for him. His father had 
always liked the name Ashley, so that is where 
Willie got his middle name." 

No greatness which ever comes to a man ever 
prevents his being other than a boy in the sight of 
his mother. Learned dissertations on the value of 
Mr. Sunday's work; argimients about his theology; 
questions about his methods fail to cast the Hght upon 
his work and his character as thoroughly as the simple 
details from the lips of his mother uttered when she 
was well past 70. 



t' 



CHAPTER III 



THE BOY'S STRUGGLE UPWARDS 

The country school house — Studies liked and disliked — 
Working for an education — The education of travel 
— Brief career at Northwestern University — Ordina- 
tion as minister — Degree of Doctor of Divinity — Di- 
versity of the man's knowledge. 

39 



CHAPTER III 



^▼EORGE EBERS, in the preface to his great 
^A novel ''Homo Sum" adopts the old Latin 
^J motto "Nothing That Is Human Is Foreign 
To Me." Thus is described the curriculum of the 
greatest university of the world — life itself. It is 
in this university that W. A. Sunday has acquired 
his Ph. D. and L. L. D., and in that capacity he holds 
fellowship with Abraham Lincoln, Dwight L. Moody, 
William Lloyd Garrison, Guiseppe Garibaldi and the 
many others whose lives shine as beacons throughout 
the realm of history. Persistently the world's inquiry 
of a man who has achieved is — what was his educa- 
tion, thinking to learn through that the route by which 
he blazed his way to an eminence which makes men 
marvel. If it were the way, and not the man, then 
all who tread the path might hope to reach pre- 
eminence. 

History will not endorse this philosophy. It is 
the individual, the aspiring soul, the endeavoring 
mind which grasps each problem as it comes, and 
solves it; which wrestles with each difficulty, and 
throws it; which ultimately finds itself breathing 
in the rarified air which God has ordained for the 
elect of history. W. A. Sunday is authorized to 
write himself, reverend, an ordained minister of the 
Presbyterian church, and that fact alone would pre- 
suppose a considerable academic career. This as- 

41 



42 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

sumption, however, does violence to the fact. Few 
men probably ever came to their ordination by a more 
peculiar route than has the famous baseball evangelist. 

The poverty of his youth and the early life in the 
orphan asylums was not conducive to deep learning 
or profound thinking, however intimately it might 
acquaint him with the joys and griefs of life. The 
country school house undoubtedly gave him his first 
rudiments of knowledge. From his own lips there is 
authority for the statement that he was in no ways 
a remarkable student: 

When I was a little boy out in Iowa, he says, 
at the end of the term of school it was customary 
for the teachers to give us little cards, with a hand 
in one corner holding a scroll, and in that scroll was 
a place to write the name. "Willie Sunday, good 
boy." Willie Sunday never got hump-shouldered 
lugging them home, I can tell you. I never car- 
ried off the champion long-distance belt for verse 
quoting, either. If you ever saw an American kid, 
I was one. 

Earlier than most boys, however, he became con- 
vinced of the value of an education, and by work 
and sacrifice, he made possible through his own 
efforts what school training he received. It was in the 
late seventies according to Mr. Hall, of Nevada, Iowa, 
that he came to that town to take up his high school 
studies, having prepared himself as best he might in 
the country schools and at the orphanages. Mr. Hall, 
is authority for the statement, that while he attended 
high school for several years, he did not graduate. 
It was while pursuing this course that he lived with 



THE boy's struggle UPWARDS 43 

Colonel Scott, and by working for him earned the 
privilege of going to school. 

According to the evangelist, his choice of studies 
ran to geography and history. "I was a dunce in 
arithmetic," he says, "and grammer was not my long 
suit, either." 

One of the means which Sunday employed to be- 
come self-supporting, was that of acting as janitor 
in a school house. It was in this capacity that an 
event took place which is frequently referred to by 
the evangelist in his sermons : 

I was working, as he tells it, in a school house 
where I went to school when a boy out in Iowa. 
I received the enormous sum of $25 per month for 
sweeping out the building, carrying the coal, and 
having the title of janitor. 

One day I went up to the bank to get my 
check cashed. Another fellow was standing beside 
me at the cashier's window and we both shoved 
our checks in at the same time. When I got outside 
I looked at the roll of bills in my hand and dis- 
covered that I had $40, just $15 more than my check 
called for. As I was standing in the middle of 
the sidewalk debating with myself what to do, along 
came a friend of mine, who is one of the biggest 
lawyers in Kansas City. I told him about the 
extra money and he told me to keep it and nobody 
would be the wiser. Well, I did, and when I was 
converted years afterwards the first thing that came 
to my mind was the $15. I went ahead for years 
until finally one time I was down in Terre Haute 
with Dr. Chapman. Every time I got down to pray, 
God seemed to tap me on the shoulder and say, 
"Remember the 15." 

Well, one night I went up to my room in the 
hotel and wrote a letter to that bank out in Iowa 



44 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

asking if the accounts at that time had come out 
short, and explaining that it was Billy Sunday that 
had taken the $15 and enclosed the money with 
interest. 

From an unfinished high school course to an 
ordained minister is a far cry, however, and there was 
many a pungent lesson in the school of Hfe before 
this first acknowledgment by the world of what he 
was, could take place. It must not be forgotten that 
one of the great elements of his success has been the 
remarkable familiarity which he has with every phase 
of work-a-day life. 

In boyhood, a farmer; in youth, a care-taker of 
animals, and apprenticed to a worker in wood; a 
professional ball player before he was 20, he put 
in the time between seasons in a variety of work 
which kept him in proper form. One of these ex- 
periences was that of fireman on what is now the 
Chicago and Northwestern. As soon as he became 
a recognized ball player, his travels naturally took 
him over a considerable portion of the United States 
and afforded him the privilege of becoming acquainted 
with a great many varieties of people, and different 
phases of life — as these differentiated themselves in 
the East and the West, and the North and the South. 

His next effort at school work, however, relates 
to his connection with the Northwestern University 
where he took service in 1887- 1888 in the capacity of 
baseball coach. Dr. Nathan Wilbur Helm, principal, 
Evanston Academy, says of the evangelist: 

He is entered on our books as William Amos 
Sunday, but Dr. Fisk says he is the same man. 



THE boy's struggle UPWARDS 45 

He came to us as baseball coach and was here only 
for the third term of the year 1887-88. He took 
work here called "Rhetorical Exercises," which in- 
cluded elocution. It is impossible to tell who his 
teacher was, because this was rather a general 
public exercise in which students were required to 
take part regularly, but were not under the charge 
of any one teacher. 

I regret that Mr. Sunday was not here longer 
as a regular student, but according to our records, 
and Dr. Fisk's statement, the facts above given 
apply to his sojourn here. However, I feel pleased 
that he was here even in that capacity. 

Dr. Fisk says that Mr. Sunday had been 
converted at that time, but was not actively in 
religious work. His influence on the ball field was 
excellent, and he stopped the practice of swearing, 
which had gotten to be somewhat of a habit with a 
number of boys on the team. 

More baseball, then his Young Men's Christian 
Association work, and finally his excursion into the 
evangelical field in company with other men whose 
reputation he has since equaled or distanced, and 
during all of which period he was a careful student 
not only of the Bible, but of current literature and 
everything of interest which came his way, and then 
he was ready for the recognition of his service to the 
church in general. 

Previous to his ordination Mr. Sunday had been 
recognized as an elder in the Jefferson Park Presby- 
terian church, which he had joined shortly after his 
marriage to Helen M. Thompson. By August i, 1898, 
he had been licensed to preach the gospel, but it was 
not until 1903 that he come up for ordination. In 
view of the controversies which have appeared in 



46 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

some sections of the secular press, it seems expedient 
to quote directly from the records of the Chicago 
Presbytery, dated April 13, 1903. This shows : 

The Committee on Education, through Rev. 
W. S. Plumer Bryan, chairman, so recommending, 
Mr. William A. Sunday, a licentiate of Presbytery, 
desiring to enter the ministery, was examined for 
ordination. His examiantion being sustained, it 
was ordered that when Presbytery adjourn it be to 
meet Wednesday, April 15, in Jefferson Park church, 
for the purpose of his ordination, that Rev. J. 
Wilbur Chapman, of Presbytery of New York, be 
requested to preach the sermon, the Moderator, 
Rev. Joseph A. Vance, to preside, propound con- 
stitutional questions and offer ordaining prayer, 
and Rev. Alexander Patterson to give the charge 
to the evangelist. 

Presbytery met pursuant to above adjourn- 
ment, in Jefferson Park church, April 15, 8 p. m., 
and was opened with prayer. Present : Ministers, 
Joseph A. Vance, Moderator; Frank Dewitt Tal- 
madge, Alexander Patterson; Elder J. Henry 
Bentz, corresponding member ; J. Wilbur Chapman, 
President, New York. Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman 
preached sermon. Rev. J. A. Vance propounded 
constitutional questions and offered prayer of or- 
dination. Rev. Alexander Patterson gave charge 
to evangelist. Adjourned with benediction by the 
newl}' ordained minister. Rev. W. A. Sunday. 

Attest, James Frothingham, Stated Clerk, 
Chicago Presbytery. 

Mr. Sunday has never been particular about be- 
ing called Reverend. Plain ''Bill" or "Billy" is the 
appellation which seems to be dearest to his heart. 
Still less is he inclined to use the title Doctor of 
Divinity, which is the last honor which has been con- 
ferred upon him in academic circles. He holds this 



THE boy's struggle UPWARDS 47 

degree from Westminster College at New Wilmington, 
Pa. Dr. Robert McWatty Russell, president of the 
college, reports that Westminster College conferred 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity upon Mr. 
Sunday at the commencement exercises June 13, 19 12. 
Dr. Russell says: 

Mr. Sunday was not able to be present, being 
engaged in evangelistic services at Beaver Falls, so 
the degree was conferred in absentia. 

We count it to the honor of Westminster 
that she did this thing. Dr. Sunday knows his 
Bible, which is the true body of divinity in theolog- 
ical lore. Mr. Sunday has devoted his life to the 
supreme task of world evangelization for which 
the Bible is the great charter. He is, therefore, 
both in scholarship and practical effort entitled to 
the degree. Just as a Doctor of Medicine is sup- 
posed to know the Science of Medicine and practice 
the art of healing, so a Doctor of Divinity who 
knows the truth about God and practices the art of 
saving is entitled to the degree. In many institu- 
tions it is customary to bestow the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity upon those who are 
men noted for their knowledge of "the traditions 
of the scribes and Pharisees" than for knowledge 
and practical use of the Bible itself. 

Patched and disjointed as are these efforts at 
acquiring the knowledge which to many men comes 
through channels so simple and natural that they are 
never conscious of them, they afford no real index to 
the attainment or the ability of the man. Agriculture 
he knows as well as most farmers ; medicine and law 
he can discuss freely with professionals. Even those 
preachers who find that he is not profound theolog- 
ically, do not say that he is not sound. Art and 



48 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

science he knows as well as the average amateur. 
The stars are not unknown to him. A colossal capac- 
ity for figures is staggering to those who become lost 
even in the ordinary intricacies of bookkeeping. His 
reading has been diversified and extremely wide- 
spread. He has a keen knowledge of the thing that 
will appeal to an audience, and a selective spirit which 
enables him to judge almost intuitively the story, the 
episode or the comparison which will most readily 
appeal to his hearers. 

During the course of his campaigns he addresses 
in one day the society women of the city, and in the 
same half day the convicts of the penitentiary. He 
dines with the governor of the state, addresses the 
legislature, speaks to shopmen in large factories and 
is ready within a few minutes to launch upon a pro- 
found exposition of some Bible theme. 

It is almost impossible to hit upon a subject for 
conversation where he is not better informed than the 
average person and at least able to discuss intelligently 
with those who have specialized in that line. In this 
respect his mind shows much in common with that 
of the great Napoleon whose versatility and adapta- 
bility were the marvel of his generation. A phenom- 
enal memory has been of material assistance in the 
proper use of his diversified knowledge. He calls by 
name readily men and women whom he has not seen 
for years, and then only for a brief period. He quotes 
verbatim whole passages not only of the Scriptures 
but of the English classics, and reproduces, with ac- 
curacy, those most baffling compilation of statistics, 
the government reports, which deal with labor, agri- 
culture, commerce and the traffic of the world. 




2 



EL., 



CHAPTER IV 



A STAR OF THE WHITE SOX 

Philosophy of the national game — Billy Sunday's in- 
terest in baseball — Sunday's discovery by "Pop" An- 
son — - Reminiscences from one who knew Sunday on 
the team — Sunday's own version — The race with 
Arlie Latham— -"Go" with H. U. Johnson — Still an 
authority on baseball — A veteran's opinion. 

49 



CHAPTER IV 



IN defense of many of the methods of modern 
evangelism it is often urged that when the 
Savior chose his disciples he called Peter from 
the fish nets, and Paul from his job as tent maker. 
In a word, those who were chosen to be messengers 
of the new salvation were of the people, and they 
preached primarily to the people. In varying degrees 
this has been true of all great evangelists who have 
achieved an acceptable ranking in history. 

It is true Luther was equipped with the academic 
training of the clergy of his time, but his life, his 
habits and his language were essentially those of the 
common people. The German into which he trans- 
lated the Holy Writ, is the German of the masses, 
and on his authority alone against all lexicographers, 
there are German expressions sanctioned which do not 
conform to the ordinary usages of good German dic- 
tion. Modern evangelism has numerous, if not such 
marked, examples of the same truth. 

Nor do these men ever shake off the vernacular 
of their early calling and association. Human nature 
is so constituted that that which smacks of the soil, 
is considered to smack of sincerity. What there is 
about studious and philosophical preparation that robs 
the masses of confidence in the man, who uses it, it 
might be hard to explain. The fact that such a seem- 

51 



52 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

ing prejudice exists is too well known to any who 
have occasion to deal with the masses habitually. 

There is no question but that baseball is the great 
American game. Its appeal is to thousands where the 
appeal of any other sport is to hundreds. It is dis- 
tinctively American. Its vigorous, if unschooled ex- 
ertions typify the American spirit, restless of all con- 
trol. Full of the element of contest, rapid in its action, 
exhilarating in its effect, essentially a contest in every 
aspect, the game is a reflex of the national life of to- 
day. 

Whether or not an All Wise Providence gave 
thought to this when He constituted W. A. Sunday, 
His messenger, or whether mere natural causes suffi- 
ciently account for the bounding popularity of the 
evangelist, who came from the ranks of the most 
popular sport in America, is a matter for speculation, 
the outcome of which is of no particular importance. 
Whether a coincidence or a cause leading to an effect, 
is immaterial. The facts are that in stepping from 
a baseball team to the rostrum of a tabernacle Mr. 
Sunday achieved a feat without parallel in modern 
history, but quite in keeping with the best traditions 
of the calling he espouses. 

It is not of record that the evangelist cherished 
any youthful ambition to shine upon the baseball field. 
Rather it is probable that baseball meant to him what 
it means to most healthy boys, a pleasant sport and an 
agreeable means by which they may express their 
energy. A hardy and lithe form inherited from 
generations of those who had tilled the soil, coupled 
with an indomitable desire to excel in whatever line 
of endeavor he entered are sufficient grounds upon 



A STAR OF THE WHITE SOX 53 

which to explain the remarkable career which he en- 
joyed in his early youth. His history is peculiar only 
in that he had come to extraordinary fame in his 
baseball work before he took up what has proved to 
be his life activity. 

The discovery of Billy Sunday on a back lot in 
Marshalltown, Iowa, by A. C. Anson, popularly known 
as "Captain" Anson, or "Pop" Anson, is baseball tradi- 
tion. It has been the remark of sporting editors that 
Billy Sunday never worked in a "brush" league, but 
stepped full fledged, a star, into the arena of the 
national game when he became a member of the White 
Sox team in 1883. Sunday remained with the Chicago 
organization for five years, and for all that time head- 
ing the batting order he played either right or center 
field. From Chicago at the end of five years Sunday 
went to Pittsburgh, and later on to Philadelphia. 

More than 20 years of active work in promulgat- 
ing the gospel has not cooled the ardor of his en- 
thusiasm for the national game, nor abated one jot 
or tittle the friendship he feels for the men who are 
still keeping it before the public, or for the older 
fellows who have had to get out of the way of the 
younger generation. Baseball and baseball lingo are 
a concomitant part and attractive feature of many of 
his best known sermons. A hearty welcome and an 
opportunity for a chat is always afforded those who 
come to discuss old times, or the changes in the game 
as it is played today. 

A man whose experience would fill volumes and 
whose career is brilliant with many exceptional 
achievements in other lines, the magazines still turn 
to him for articles on baseball, and he is regularly 



54 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

quoted as an authority on many phases of the subject. 
Everywhere that Mr. Sunday goes in the furtherance 
of his evangelical campaigns, he meets with many who 
recall his White Sox days and not infrequently these 
form a nucleus of the subsequent crowds which rally 
to his support. As a unit these men insist that Sunday 
was a great baseball player. Most pertinent to quote, 
however, is his brother-in-law, Wm. J. Thompson, 
who as a boy traveled with the Chicago team, and 
who took more than a boy's interest in the courtship 
between Mr. Sunday and Miss Thompson, which was 
in progress at the time. Mr. Thompson in a recent 
interview thus outlined his brother-in-law's baseball 
career : 

He certainly was a punk hitter, but on the 
bases he was, by all odds, the fastest man in the 
big league. Did you know that Billy was the first 
man in this country to run a 100 yards in 10 
seconds flat? I saw him do it. At the time it was 
considered a marvelous thing and Billy got national 
prominence as a result. Everybody on the team 
always worked to get Billy on the bases because 
they knew that if he once got to first he was almost 
certain to score. 

As a base-stealer Billy didn't have a rival. 
Just as Ty Cobb is the terror to present-day catchers, 
Billy was the terror in his day. I've seen him many 
a time start to slide into the bases when he would 
be 20 feet away, and nine times out of ten he'd 
make it. All the spectators would see would be a 
cloud of dust. Billy was such a twister that it was 
almost impossible for a baseman to get the ball on 
him. 

Billy played in the field and, believed me, he 
could cover a lot of ground, too. In those days 
Billy was the same good fellow that he is today, 



A STAR OF THE WHITE SOX SS 

only he hadn't got religion. He was a favorite 
with everybody on the club, and especially with the 
fans. He was a great "kidder," too, and no matter 
what they hurled at him from the stands, he came 
right back at 'em with a still hotter one. Maybe 
you've noticed he's some talker today. 

Mr. Sunday's ov^n version of his work and his 
success in it does not materially differ from that of 
Mr. Thompson: 

1 never was an extra heavy batter, he says, 
but I used to strike around 250 or 300 in the 
batting percentage. Where I excelled was in speed, 
and I always led the batting order, because I was 
a dangerous man to have on bases with heavy 
batters behind me. 

Of Mr. Sunday's agility, there seems to be no 
shadow of a doubt. Current sporting writers compare 
him to Ty Cobb and others in the limelight at the 
present moment. He is given credit for establishing 
the mark of encircling the bases from a standing start 
in 14 seconds, an achievement calculated to try the 
wind and limb of the most perfect athlete. One base- 
ball writer says : 

He probably caused more wide throws than 
any other player the game has ever known, because 
of his specialty of "going down to first" like a 
streak of greased electricity. When he hit the ball, 
infielders yelled, "Hurry it up !" The result was 
that they often threw 'em away. He was ac- 
knowledged champion sprinter of the National 
League. This led to a match race once with Arlie 
Latham, who held like honors in the American. 
Billy won by 15 feet— and with $75,000 of Chicago 
money up on the race. 



56 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

More than the contest with speed, however, in 
this particular instance, was a contest that went on 
within the breast of the young baseball star, who at 
ihe time had been recently converted. At a luncheon 
tendered to him in one of the clubs at Columbus, Air. 
Sunday gave his own version of the race with Arlie 
Latham : 

"When I played ball I could outrun any man 
in the National League," he said. Arlie Latham 
could do the same in the American League, so we 
fixed it up to have a race one Sunday afternoon. 
But in the meantime I got converted. I went to 
Cap Anson and said : "Cap, I can't do it. I'm 
converted and I can't run that race on Sunday." 
Cap said to me, "Bill, don't show the white 
feather. We've got $12,000 bet on you and all the 
boys have bet their last cent on you. If you don't 
win that race they'll have to eat snowballs next 
winter. You go down to St. Louis and run that 
race and fix it up with God afterwards." 

Well, I ran the race and I beat Latham by 15 
feet and came home with my pockets full of money. 
I then went before the presbytery and told 'em 
all and stuck to the church, and after eight years 
they ordained me as a minister. x-\nd then the 
other day Westminster gave me an honorary "D. D." 
Say, that's going some for an old sport that's never 
seen the inside of a college, isn't it? 

Another speed contest which attracted national 
attention at the time was an unexpected ''go" with 
H. U. Johnson, a man very well known in his day. 
As the South Bend Tribune tells it: 

In the spring of 1887, without any special 
training or previous experience in that specific 



A STAR OF THE WHITE SOX 57 

athletic line, without practice in quick-starting and 
without words of encouragement from friends to 
spur him on, Sunday came within an ace of lowering 
the colors of H. U. Johnson, who at that time was 
heralded as the fastest runner of the day. 

Sunday accepted a challenge, left the diamono 
for the day, donned a track suit, dug his spikes 
into the sands of the track at Chicago beach, on 
Lake Michigan, and raced Johnson, who was in the 
pink of condition, and who had just returned from 
capturing the Sheffield championship in England. 

We started off like a shot, said Sunday while 
in a reminiscent mood the other day. I was used 
to speedy work on the diamond but not on a 
straight track. I led Johnson for 80 yards, and 
then he began to crawl up on me. Everything 
blurred before me. The crowd seemed to swim 
before my eyes as I ran, but I could see the finish 
line getting nearer and nearer. The distance was 
100 yards. Johnson and I neared the line neck- 
and-neck. He ran lower than I did and breasted 
the tape just six inches ahead of me and won. 

The timers had six watches on us. Three 
caught us at 10 seconds flat and three at 9 4/5 
seconds. After the race Johnson turned, grasped 
my hand and told me that in two weeks' time he 
could train me so that I could beat him by five feet 
with but a little training. I said "nothing doing," 
though, and went back to the diamond and played. 

Quoting from another article: 

Sunday probably has the longest lower leg, 
that is, from the knee to the foot, of any man ever 
seen in this city. It has powerful bulging muscles 
near the knee, tapering down to actual thinness near 
the ankle, a runner's foot in every particular. 

At Steubenville, when the national championships 
were drawing to a crisis, Sunday could not refrain 



58 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

from making a comparison with the ball players of 
his day. The conversation is typical, in that it dis- 
plays the loyalty of the man, both to his past associates 
and to the calling in which he first won recognition. 
The interview says : 

You can talk about Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, 
Lajoie, and all the others, but there isn't a man 
that has ever come up to Cap Anson as a batter, 
says Evangelist Billy Sunday. Cap could swing on 
that ball — my, how he could swing ! — and you could 
never tell where he would send it. He could give a 
terrific swat and there isn't a batter today that can 
surpass him. 

And as to pitchers, John Clarkson topped them 
all. John was the only man I ever saw who would 
throw overhanded and make the ball go down and 
then up. He used to wear his finger nails down to 
the quick in throwing that ball and would have his 
fingers and the ball covered with blood. 

And some of you fellows talk about the 
"squeeze play" and other new plays of the diamond. 
Bah ! We used to make those same plays 25 years 
ago, only we didn't have any fancy names for them. 
Four times that I know of I scored from second 
base on an infield hit. 

No, sir. We didn't wear any gloves in those 
days. You say: "Oh, the ball must have been 
softer," Let me tell you it was hard then as it is 
today and they used to shoot 'em over just as 
swiftly, too. My, how Clarkson, McCormick, 
"Long" John Whitney, Amos Rusie, Charles Rad- 
bourne and those fellows could send the ball over 
the plate. 

But you know in those days fouls did not 
count as strikes. Mike Kelley was really respon- 
sible for the present rule. Mike would stand up at 
the plate and sometimes foul off 20 balls before he 



A STAR OF THE WHITE SOX 59 

would hit safely. It became an art and he'd get 
the pitcher tired. He would stand at the plate all 
day if they hadn't made the new rule on foul. 

It was during his career as a baseball player that 
Mr. Sunday was converted at the Pacific Garden Mis- 
sion in Chicago, under the ministration of Harry Mon- 
roe. Naturally this event made a decided change in 
his life, and while, by his own confession, he was 
somewhat given to excesses in his earlier day, it is 
interesting to know that in a general way his character 
and his habits were of a good order. He was esteemed 
by all who knew him. That their standards of life 
were not the standards of leaders in ethical thought 
is a criticism of present-day society, and not of the 
man. In this connection it is worth while to quote 
Mr. Frank C. Richter, editor of Sporting Life, 
probably the best known publication of its class in this 
country. Mr. Richter says : 

I never had the pleasure of personal acquaint- 
ance with Mr. Sunday, and therefore cannot speak 
with the authority of intimate knowledge of his 
personality or character. But I never heard any- 
thing but good of him from those who knew him 
or associated with him. He stood high with his 
teammates, and that is a splendid credential in my 
opinion, as no hypocrite could associate long with 
ball players without being unmasked and, per con- 
sequence, being treated with merited contempt, and 
perhaps let severely alone by a class never chary in 
expression of their views of men and things and 
endowed with little reverence, as a rule. 



CHAPTER V 



THE MEMORABLE NIGHT IN VAN BUREN 

STREET 

Religious antecedents of the evangelist — An emotional 
nature — Baseball and religion — Mr. Sunday's own 
story of his conversion at Pacific Garden Mission in 
Chicago — The resolutions that follov»red. 

61 



CHAPTER V 



CHE great transformations in the lives of men 
conspicuous in the affairs of the world are 
always a subject of exceptional interest. Each 
man looks at them in the light of his own philosophy 
of living. Few men have come to great prominence 
in the world without having some date or event set out 
that transcended with vividness from the rest of their 
lives. Particularly is this true of the great men in 
the world of religion. Occasionally one will find a 
great divine who says of himself: "I do not rememiber 
when I was converted." Even these rare incidents 
are usually found in families which for generations 
have led not only godly lives, but lives actively de- 
voted to the advancement of religious work. 

No such lack of certainty concerns the life of 
Mr. Sunday. A definite Sunday night in the fall of 
1887 stands out vividly in his recollections over all 
the other nights of his life. That event has been the 
subject of one of the greatest sermons the evangelist 
ever delivers. It has been heard in more than 100 
cities, twice that number of newspapers have printed 
it, and yet it thrills each time with a sense of newness 
and truth that makes a profound impression on all 
who sit beneath its spell. 

Mr. Sunday's mother was a Methodist. As a 
boy he had been schooled in the usages of that church. 
Students of cause and effect may like to ascribe the 

G3 



64 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

remarkable transformation in life which took place 
at the age of 24 as based upon this antecedent. 
There is none who can deny them the right to that 
opinion, although it will not be the one generally ac- 
cepted. "]^Ir. Simday's mother was a Corey," writes 
a friend of the family, ''and emotionalism was a prom- 
inent trait in their make-up.'' In this fact others will 
find a reason for what transpired on the memorable 
night in \'an Buren street, Chicago, Illinois. But here 
again no sufficient reason is forthcoming to account 
exactly for what took place when it did. Xo one 
who examines the facts from without can hope to 
have the knowledge that comes from a survey within. 
No philosophical disputation could add any truth to 
the statement as the evangelist himself has outlined 
it, and certainly none could be put so forcefully. 

^Ir. Sunday stands today an ordained minister 
of the Presbyterian church, and emotionalism is not 
essentially a Presbyterian trait. True to the earliest 
influences of his home, he exemplifies the benefit of 
his mother's church, the foundation of which were 
laid in evangelism. At the time of his conversion, 
Mr. Sunday had been a baseball player of national 
reputation for four years ; he was in receipt of a salary 
which at the time was considered very large. As life 
goes, for men of that class, success and whatever hap- 
piness that is supposed to bring with it was already 
his. Nothing that life in future years has brought 
him has ever caused him to deprecate his earlier call- 
ing and his associates. Without being blinded to their 
faults, he has always had for them the greatest charity. 

The life of a baseball player is in no sense cal- 
culated to induce religious reflection. Its practices 



MEMORABLE NIGHT IN VAN BUREN STREET 65 

are not consistent with any particular church life. It 
is not to be presumed, therefore, that the conversion 
of the baseball player — Billy Sunday — was predi- 
cated upon his previous religious activities other than 
that of his very early home days. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of persons have heard him tell the story, and 
dozens of men have attempted to write it, but none 
have achieved an approximation of success when he 
has departed in any way from a verbatim report. As 
Mr. Sunday tells the story: 

Twenty-six years ago I walked down a street 
in Chicago in company with some ball players who \ 

were famous in this world — some of them are dead \ 

now — and we went into a saloon. It was Sunday \ 

afternoon and we got tanked up, and then went and i 

sat down on a corner. I never go by that place but i 

I pray. It is Van Buren street, Chicago. ] 

As I said, we walked on down the street to the I 

corner. It was a vacant lot at that time. We sat I 

down on the curbing. Across the street a company 
of men and women were playing on instruments — 
horns, flutes and slide trombones — and the others 
were singing the gospel hymns that I used to hear 
my mother sing back in, the log cabin in Iowa, 
and back in the old church where I used to go to | 

Sunday school. I 

And God painted on the canvas of my memory 
a vivid picture of the scenes of other days and other 
faces. Many have long since turned to dust. I 
sobbed and sobbed and a young man stepped out 
and said : "We are going down to the Pacific Gar- 
den Mission ; won't you come down to the mission ? 
I am sure you will enjoy it. You can hear drunk- 
ards tell how they have been saved and girls tell 
how they have been saved from the red light ^^ 

district." 



66 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 



y I arose and said to the boys : "I'm through. 
AVe've come to the parting of the ways/' and I 
turned my back on them. Some of them laughed 
and some of them mocked me ; one of them gave 
me encouragement; others never said a word. 

Twenty-six years ago I turned and left that 
little group on the corner of State and Madison 
streets, walked to the little mission, went on my 
knees and staggered out of sin and into the arms 
of the Savior. 

I went over to the West Side of Chicago 
where I was keeping company with a girl, now my 
wife, Nell. I married Nell. She was a Presby- 
terian, so I am a Presbyterian. Had she been a 
Catholic I would have been a Catholic — because I 
was hot on the trail of Nell. 

The next day I had to go out to the ball park 
and practice. Every morning at 10 o'clock we had 
to be out there and practice. I never slept that 
night. I was afraid of the horse-laugh that gang 
would give me because I had taken my stand for 
Jesus Christ. 

I walked down to the old ball grounds. I 
will never forget it. I slipped mj^ key into the 
wicket gate, and the first man to meet me after I 
got inside was ]\Iike Kelley. 

Up came Mike Kelley. He said: "Bill, I'm 
proud of 3'ou. Religion is not my long suit, but I'll 
help you all I can." Up came Anson, Pfeffer, 
Clarkson, Flint, Jimmy McCormick, Burns, William- 
son and Dalrymple. There wasn't a fellow in that 
gang who knocked ; every fellow had a word of 
encouragement for me. 

That afternoon we played the old Detroit club. 
We were neck-and-neck for the championship. 
That club had Thompson, Richardson, Rowe, Dun- 
lap, Hanlon and Bennett, and they could play ball. 

I was playing right-field and John G. Clarkson 
was pitching. He was as fine a pitcher as ever 
crawled into a uniform. There are some pitchers 



MEMORABLE NIGHT IN VAN BUREN STREET 67 

today — O'Toole, Bender, Wood, Mathewson, John- 
son, Marquard, but I do not believe any one of them 
stood in the class with Clarkson. 

We had two men out and tjiey had a man on 
second and one on third, and Bennett, their old 
catcher, was at the bat. Charley had three balls and 
two strikes on him. Charley couldn't hit a high 
ball — I don't mean a Scotch highball — but he could 
kill them when they went about his knee. 

I hollered to Clarkson and said : "One more 
and we got 'em." 

You know every pitcher digs a hole in, the 
ground where he puts his foot when he is pitching. 
John stuck his foot in the hole and he went clear 
to the ground. Oh, he could make them dance. 
He could throw overhanded and the ball would go 
down and up like that. He is the only man on 
earth I have seen, do that. That ball would go by 
so fast that a thermometer would drop two degrees. 
John went clear down, and as he went to throw the 
ball his right foot slipped and the ball went low 
instead of high. I saw Charley swing hard and 
heard the bat hit the ball with a terrific blow. 
Bennett had smashed the ball on the nose. I saw 
the ball rise in the air and knew it was going clear 
over my head. I could judge within 10 feet of 
where the ball would light. I turned my back to 
the ball and ran. 

The field was crowded with people and I 
yelled : "Stand back !" and that crowd opened like 
the Red Sea opened for the rod of Moses. I ran on, 
and as I ran I made a prayer ; it wasn't theological, 
either, I tell you that. I said : "God, if you ever 
helped mortal man, help me get that ball, and you 
haven't very much time to make up your mind, 
either." I ran and jumped over the bench and 
stopped. I thought I was close enough to catch it. 
I looked back and saw it going over my head, and 
I jumped and shoved my left hand out and the ball 
hit it and stuck. At the rate I was going, the mo- 



68 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

mentum carried me on and I fell under the feet 
of a team of horses. I jumped up with the ball in 
my hand. Up came Tom Johnson. He was after- 
wards mayor of Cleveland. "Here is $10, Bill; buy 
yourself the best hat in Chicago. That catch won 
me $1500. Tomorrow go and buy yourself the best 
suit of clothes you can find in Chicago." 

An old Methodist minister said to me a few 
years ago : "Why, William, you didn't take the $10, 
did you?" I said, "You bet I did." 

Listen ! Mike Kelley was sold to Boston for 
$10,000. He came up to me and showed me a check 
for $5,000. John L. Sullivan, the champion fighter, 
went around with a subscription paper and the 
boys raised over $12,000 to buy Mike a house. They 
gave Mike a deed to the house and they had $1,500 
left and gave him a certificate of deposit for that. 
His salary for playing with Boston was $4,700 a 
year. At the end of that season Mike had spent the 
$5,000 purchase price and the $5,000 he received as 
salary and the $1,500 they gave him and had a 
mortgage on the house. And when he died in 
Pennsylvania they went around with a subscription 
to get money enough to put him in the ground. 
Mike sat there on the corner with me 26 years ago 
when I said : "Good-bye, boys, I'm through." 

A. G. Spalding signed up a team to go around 
the world. I was the first man he asked to sign a 
contract and Capt. Anson was the second. I was 
sliding to second base one day. I always slid head 
first and I hit a stone and cut a ligament loose in 
my knee. I got a doctor and had my leg fixed up, 
and he said to me: "William, if you don't go on 
that trip I will give you a good leg." I obeyed 
and I have as good a leg today as I ever had. They 
offered to wait for me at Honolulu and Australia. 
Spalding said : "Meet us in England and play with 
us through England, Scotland and Wales." I did 
not go. 



MEMORABLE NIGHT IN VAN BUREN STREET 69 

Ed. Williamson, our old shortstop, was a 
fellow weighing 225 pounds, and a more active 
man you never saw. He went with them, and 
while they were on the ship crossing the English 
Channel a storm arose. The captain thought the 
ship would go down. Then he dropped on his knees 
and promised God to be true and God spoke and 
the waves were still. They came back to the United 
States and Ed. came back to Chicago and started 
a saloon on Dearborn street. I would go there 
giving tickets for the Y. M. C. A. meetings and 
would talk with- him, and he would cry like a baby. 
I would get down and pray for him. When he died 
they put him on the table and cut him open and 
took out his liver. It was so big it would not go 
in a candy bucket. Ed Williamson sat there on the 
street corner with me 26 years ago when I said 
Good-bye boys, I'm through. 

Frank Flint, our old catcher, who caught for 
19 years, drew $3,200 a year on. an average. He 
caught before they had chest protectors and masks 
and gloves. He caught bare-handed. Every bone 
in the ball of his hand was broken. You never saw 
a hand like Frank had. Every bone in his face was 
broken and his nose and cheekbones, and the 
shoulder and ribs had all been broken. 

I've seen old Frank Flint sleeping on a table 
in a stale beer joint and I've turned my pockets 
inside out and said : "You're welcome to it, old 
pal." He drank on and on, and one day in winter 
he staggered out of a stale beer joint and stood on a 
corner and was seized with a fit of coughing. The 
blood streamed out of his nose, his mouth and his 
eyes. Down the street came a woman. She took 
one look and said: "My God, is it you, Frank?" 
and the old love came back. 

She called two policemen and a cab and started 
with him to her boarding house. They broke all 
speed regulations. She called five of the best 
physicians and they listened to the beating of his 



70 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

heart — one. two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 
nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen — and the 
doctor said : "He will be dead in about four 
hours." She said : "Frank, the end is near." And 
he said: "Send for Bill." 

They telephoned me and I came. When I 
reached his bedside he said to me : "There's noth- 
ing in the life of years ago I care for now. I can 
hear the grandstand hiss when I strike out. I can 
hear the bleachers cheer when I make a hit that wins 
the game ; but this is nothing that can help me 
out now, and if the Umpire calls me out now, 
won't you say a few words over me. Bill?" 

He struggled as he had years ago on the 
diamond when he tried to reach home — but the great 
Umpire of the Universe yelled: '"You're out." And 
the great gladiator of the diamond was no more. 
Frank Flint sat on the street corner drunk with 
me 26 years ago in Chicago, when I said, "I'll bid 
you good-bye, boys, I'm going to Jesus." Say, men, 
did I win the game of life or did they? 

Of the sincerity and the persistence of the change 
of heart which took place at the Pacific Garden Mis- 
sion in A'an Buren street, there has been no reason to 
question in the more than one-quarter century that has 
transpired since then. The event marked the turning 
point in the man's career. Xot immediately did he 
give up the only calling which at the time afforded him 
a means of livelihood ; but at once he began to plan 
for that change which other subsequent years of 
sacrifice led ultimately to his present pre-eminence in 
the evangelicgl-field. 

The Pacific Garden Mission, famous for other no- 
table conversions, among them that of Melvin E. Trot- 
ter, the greatest home mission worker in America, still 
stands, and the veteran Harry ^lonroe is in charge. 



MEMORABLE NIGHT IN VAN BUREN STREET 71 

as he was upon that night when there came to Mr. 
Sunday a vision of the error of his ways, a glimpse 
into the better Hfe that lay before, and into his soul 
that steel of determination which bade him close the 
doors on all that had gone before, to turn his face to- 
ward the promise land and journey thither strong in 
the faith that his past transgression had been forgiven. 




Orr-Kiefer Studio. 

Mr. axd Mrs. \V. A. Suxday. 



CHAPTER VI 



COURTING NELL 

Religion, baseball and love — A small brother's part — A 
September wedding — A little home in Chicago. 

73 



CHAPTER VI 



BEFORE W. A. Sunday had visited Pacific Gar- 
den Mission ; before he had become convinced 
of the obHquity of the Hfe he was leading, there 
had come into his existence the element of what 
Goethe calls, the eternal feminine. In this instance 
it was personified by winsome Nellie Thompson, 
daughter of a well-known West Side Chicago ice 
cream manufacturer. 

The exact incidents of the first meeting are not 
clearly defined. Mrs. Sunday frequently refers to it 
in her talks as having taken place at a Presbyterian 
church, but the evidence is all in favor of Mr. Sun- 
day having had some interest in the premises prior 
to that time, since the Presbyterian service is not ex- 
actly the place to look for a baseball player who comes 
of Methodist parentage. 

A very little youngster at that time, now a 
Chicago business man by name of W. A. Thompson, 
a brother to Mrs. Sunday, ascribes the successful con- 
summation of the courtship somewhat to his own ef- 
forts. At least it was his interest in baseball, and his 
youthful admiration for the star, Sunday, that made 
easier the friendship between the daughter of a well- 
to-do manufacturer and a baseball player, who like 
many of their class, could boast of no particular social 
standing. 

According to young Thompson the beginning of 
this friendship was back in 1885. Thompson tells an 

75 



76 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

interesting story of how he tried his influence with his 
sister for the position of mascot on the Chicago team, 
a position which Sunday made possible for him, and 
which he enjoyed for a couple of seasons. 

Nellie Thompson had had advantages which were 
not part of Mr. Sunday's bringing up. She not only 
enjoyed the usual schooling accorded young women 
in Chicago, but devoted considerable time to a study 
of painting, and her intimate friends still prize evi- 
dence of her skill with the brush. 

It was during the courtship that Mr. Sunday was 
converted. It is to the influence of his sweetheart 
that he ascribes the fact that he became a Presbyterian. 
The Thompsons were Scotch, and Nellie Thompson 
so adhered to the national church of her ancestors. 
As evidence of her influence on his career he is today 
an ordained minister in a church which is neither the 
logical affiliation for one of his German extraction 
nor of the early training of his mother and the home. 

Just how much the religious convictions of Mr. 
Sunday had to do with his marriage to Helen A. 
Thompson probably no one will ever know. The 
momentous question was asked, however, and the 
proper answer returned, and the record shows that on 
the 5th of September, 1888, Wm. A. Sunday and 
Miss Helen A. Thompson were joined in marriage by 
David C. Marquis, a minister of the gospel. It would 
seem that Mr. Sunday, in common with all mankind, 
was considerably nervous at the time he secured his 
license. This was the day previous to the wedding, 
and on that ocasion he gave his age as 24, and that 
of Miss Thompson as 20. This calls attention to 
the discrepancy of several records concerning the early 



COURTING NELL 77 

life of Mr. Sunday. According to the information 
on file at the orphan asylum, Mr. Sunday was born 
in 1862; according to the biographical sketch in ''Who's 
Who," which is usually very accurate, he was born 
in 1863, while the deduction from the records of his 
marriage license would make his birth year 1864. 

Mrs. Sunday says that the date 1862 is correct; 
and that the discrepancies arose because as a youth 
Mr. Sunday was so much away from home and knew 
very little of his family history. 

For more than twenty years, the Sundays made 
Chicago their home, living in the vicinity of Throop 
and Adams streets, which was then one of the best 
resident sections of the city. 

Even in the lapse of the relatively short time 
since the marriage of these two, times have changed 
remarkably — now when a star baseball player be- 
comes the victim of Cupid's dart the newspapers all 
over the country herald it in large type, but in that 
day comparative obscurity was the portion of the 
wives of baseball players. The Chicago papers either 
ignored the wedding altogether or dismissed it with a 
line or two. 



CHAPTER VII 



APPLIED CHRISTIANITY AT $83 PER MONTH 

First evidence of sincerity — The temptation that fol- 
lowed — Some drastic economy — His Y. M. C. A. 
work as an education — What his superior officer 
says — Fighting Bob IngersoU — Speaking in prayer 
meeting — A four year struggle closes. 

79 



=U.V.- 



CHAPTER VII 



TN the day of his unprecedented successes it has 
become the fad among a large number of 
skeptics to question the sincerity of Rev. W. A. 
Sunday. It is a well established principle of law that 
causes which govern in the origin of any act must be 
fully weighed in considering its ultimate consequences. 
The strongest proof of the sincerity of Mr. Sunday 
in his subsequent activities is found in the early steps 
which he took, following his conversion, to alter the 
course of his life pursuant to the new convictions he 
entertained. 

Probably the very first step was that of declining 
to play baseball on Sunday. This new stand while 
difficult, was easier to take because of his exceptional 
ability and prominence in the club of which he was a 
member. 

This did not satisfy him however. Repeated 
visits to the mission persuaded him that there was 
Christian work which he could do along somewhat 
similar lines. An early step was to petition for his 
release from the team with which he had a contract. 
At first it was impossible to bring about the desired 
result. In 1891, however, the dissolution of the so- 
called ''Brotherhood" threw a lot of baseball talent 
into the open market, and it was possible for the young 
convert to secure his release. 

Now it must be borne in mind that a salary of 
v$i,ooo a month was a possible salary for a top-notch 

6 81 



82 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

baseball player of national acclaim. To these specifi- 
cations Billy Sunday conformed in every detail. Yet 
despite this fact, and the further one that he had a 
wife to support, he relinquished all further connection 
with the baseball field to become an under-secretary 
at the Chicago Y. M. C. A. in March, 1891, at a 
maximum salary of $83.33 per month. 

To make the contrast still stronger the Chicago 
Association at that time was in such straits for 
funds that his salary was sometimes as much as six 
months in arrears. The evangelist has remarked very 
often that no one then accused him of being a 
grafter. According to his own statement, "I went 
hungry at noon and walked to and from work to save 
car fare." 

Properly speaking the Y. M. C. A. period of Mr. 
Sunday's life which extended from 1901 to 1905 
should be considered as a part of his education. It 
gave him a training, which has since proved invaluable, 
in meeting all manner of men on the broad plane of 
humanity. It gave him an opportunity at public 
speaking, at which, according to all reports, in the be- 
ginning he was awkward enough. More important 
than these it brought him in touch with the big men 
who were doing things in the religious world, and 
out of it ultimately grew his association with Dr. J. 
Wilbur Chapman, even then a world-famous evange- 
list. 

L. Wilbur Messer, general secretary of the Chi- 
cago Y. M. C. A. in discussing Mr. Sunday's con- 
nection with his institution said : 

Mr. Sunday had begun the Christian life, as a 
result, as I remember, of his contact with the 



CHRISTIANITY AT $83 PER MONTH 83 

Pacific Garden Mission and soon became identified 
with our association activities. Mr. Sunday ren- 
dered very valuable service in the specific religious 
work of the association. He was especially strong 
in his personal effort among men who were 
strongly tempted and among those who had fallen 
by the way. He was also effective in his evan- 
gelistic appeals even at that early period in his 
Christian life. 

We never had a man on our staff who was 
more consecrated, more deeply spiritual, more self- 
sacrificing or more resultful in his work in winning 
men to Christ. 

Mr. Sunday while with us was a bitter foe of 
any kind of vice and did some effective work in 
creating public sentiment concerning certain evils 
which beset young men. Mr. Sunday has since that 
time rendered most valuable service in many cities 
where he has conducted meetings by approving the 
association and by raising large funds for its 
support. 

I count my friendship with Mr, Sunday as one 
of the rare priveleges of my life. 

The change from active outdoor life to the com- 
parative confinement of institute work at first inter- 
fered seriously with Mr. Sunday's health and he was 
obliged to take an extended vacation at Lake Geneva 
for recuperation. More and more, however, he made 
his Y. M. C. A. work take him into the open, and 
meeting with the various classes of people whom it 
was his province to interest. 

An incident of his work is probably typical of 
its general trend. In one of his sermons Mr. Sunday 
says: 

When I was assistant secretary of the Y. M. 
C. A. in Chicago, I had H. L. Hastings, who 



84 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

edited an anti-infidel paper, send me 3,500 copies ol 
it. Bob Ingersoll was delivering three lectures in 
McVicker's Theater, and I had these copies dis- 
tributed to people on the sidewalk as they went in 
or out. The first night Ingersoll had a big audience. 
The next night it was smaller and on the third night 
it had dwindled almost to nothing. 

Every day at noon, while Ingersoll was lectur- 
ing, Hastings would go to old Farwell Hall and 
answer IngersoU's statements of the night before. 
One night Ingersoll painted one of those wonderful 
word pictures for which he was justly famous. He 
was a master of the use of words. Men and women 
would applaud and cheer and wave their hats and 
handkerchiefs, and the waves of sound would rise 
and fall like great waves of the sea. As two men 
were going home from the lecture one of them 
said to the other : "Bob certainly cleaned 'em up 
tonight." The other man said : "There's one 
thing he didn't clean up. He didn't clean up the 
religion of my old mother.' 

Another serniDn expression throws a light on the 
manner in which he was groping toward that self- 
expression in which he came to excel: 

We, all of us, grow by expression. When I 
first started out to be a Christian I couldn't stand up 
in a prayer meeting and use three sentences con- 
secutively, but I made it a rule to speak whenever I 
got a chance and so I overcame my natural diffi- 
dence. God blesses me because I am determined 
to do something for Him. I could have sat still and 
withered and mildewed like a lot of you. God. 
wants to develop us according to nature. 

The evangelist's own version of his introduction 
into Y. M. C. A, work is interesting. He had a con- 



CHRISTIANITY AT $83 PER MONTH 85 

tract to play with the Philadelphia baseball team at 
the same time that he was particularly desirous of tak- 
ing up the new work. He had already received his 
orders to report for the trip South, which is the com- 
mon practice of large baseball teams in the spring of 
the year. Not knowing what to do Mr. Sunday "laid 
it before the Lord as a business proposition," to quote 
his own words. He decided that if he got his release 
before March 25, he would go into the Y. M. C. A. 
work; if he did not get it he would play out the rest 
of his contract. The release came on March 17. But 
with it came another offer from Cincinnati which again 
threw himi into doubt. He was offered a contract at 
$500 per month, while his Y. M. C. A. position would 
give him only $83. Consultation with friends and 
particularly with his wife persuaded him that the 
proper thing to do was to follow his conscience and 
to enter the field of work for which he had prayed 
so earnestly. 

Thus began the struggle of four years of hard 
work on an indefinite income. A work with varying 
aspects and experiences; broadening and deepening 
his nature; amplifying his outlook upon life and giv- 
ing him acquaintance with the people, and familiarity 
with the organization which was shortly to lead to his 
exceptional triumphs in the field of evangelism. 




Melvin E. Trotter. 



yJ 



CHAPTER VIII 



TENTS, TABERNACLES AND OTHER THINGS 

Parting with Dr. Chapman — Episode with President 
Harrison — Start in small towns — Lack of sermons 
— Association with M. B. Williams, father of the 
tabernacle — The first tabernacle — The philosophy 
of the tabernacle — The famous "sawdust trail" — A 
choir leader is added — What Fischer says — The 
work grows. 

87 



CHAPTER VIII 

TT was in Chicago as under-secretary of the Y. M. 
C. A. that Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman first met Mr. 
Sunday. The earnestness and sincerity of the 
young man and particularly his close sympathy with 
the masses made a strong impression upon the evangel- 
ist and led to the offer of a position to travel with 
him as an assistant. Those who, in later days, chose 
to contrast the methods of Dr. Chapman and Rev. 
Mr. Sunday often failed to take into account the 
difference in personal temperament and doctrine of 
the two men. Although they parted company after 
two years they have always maintained a friendship 
and shown an interest, each in the work of the other. 
There can be no doubt that the two years spent with 
Dr. Chapman were of great educational benefit to the 
aspiring evangelist. Dr. Chapman was not only a 
thorough Bible student but a magnetic speaker and a 
good organizer; he had developed at that time his 
peculiar capacity for doing a great deal of work in a 
short space of time, a capacity in which the student 
probably outstripped the master in later years but 
which at the time was a valuable training. 

Mr. Sunday frequently refers to his period with 
Dr. Chapman in his addresses and always in the spirit 
of the greatest appreciation. Dr. Chapman then, as 
in later years, confined his efforts largely to cities of 
considerable magnitude. One episode to which Mr. 
Sunday is fond of alluding has to do with a campaign 

89 



90 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

in Indianapolis. On that occasion President Benjamiin 
Harrison and his daughter were in the audience and 
it became possible for Mr. Sunday to extend in person 
an invitation to the president to occupy a seat upon 
the platform. The argument which the young evan- 
gelist used and which finally proved effectual was that 
the spectacle of a man so generally known and so 
generally revered, making a public confession of his 
adherence to religion and his faith in the doctrine of 
the church, would have a powerful influence upon 
those in the audience who had never taken such a 
stand. He regarded it as one of the proudest moments 
of his life when he was able to lead Mr. Harrison to 
a seat upon the platform. 

With Dr. Chapman Mr. Sunday got frequent 
opportunities to test his oratorical powers and to im- 
prove his skill in the composition and handling of his 
sermons. 

Although he has never said so, there is a feeling 
that it was a desire on his part to reach men who could 
not be reached under the Chapman plan that led Mr. 
Sunday to embark in the evangelistic work by him- 
self and to abandon the large cities. Anyhow, this was 
what he did. 

He went straight home to Iowa, the state of his 
birth, and took up his work in small towns. Places 
of 3,000 and 4,000 were the scenes of his very earliest 
independent endeavors, and through sheer lack of 
material, according to his own account, he was driven 
from place to place at intervals of a week or ten days. 
"I had half a dozen sermons at that time," he says, 
"and when these had been used I had to go on to the 
next place." During this period of his career tents 



TENTS, TABERNACLES AND OTHER THINGS 91 

were frequently employed because no auditorium in 
these small places would accommodate the crowds 
which from the very first began to flock to his re- 
vivals. 

It was a little later that Mr. Sunday became asso- 
ciated with M. B. Williams, an evangelist of consider- 
able note in his day, and in that part of the country. 
Mr. Williams is given the credit for being the father 
of the tabernacle idea, an idea which Mr. Sunday has 
perfected and improved, and brought to a magnitude 
and degree of perfection of which its inventor never 
dreamed. 

Elgin, Illinois, has the honor of building the first 
tabernacle. It seated 3,000 people and had a 
chorus of 300. It was dedicated in December, 1900. 
From this it will be seen that at the outset Mr. Sun- 
day preserved the ratio of i to 10 between choir and 
auditorium!. In the days when 10,000 and 12,000 
capacity auditoriums became actualities the choir had 
grown to 1,000 and 1,200 members. The tabernacle 
idea originated in the early nineties and has been very 
generally adopted by evangelists, particularly those 
operating in smaller communities or in sparsely settled 
districts. It remained for Mr. Sunday, however, to 
demonstrate its utility under other conditions such as 
Columbus, Toledo, South Bend, Wilkes-Barre and 
Pittsburgh presented. 

The architecture of the tabernacle, like its size, 
has been a development. The prime requisite in every 
instance is the best possible accommodation of a single 
voice. To this end, lofty ceilings are abandoned and 
low straight roofs are used. The platform or speak- 
ing pulpit is pushed as far as possible toward the cen- 



92 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

ter of the auditorium. Necessity as much as anything* 
else gave rise to the famous "sawdust trail." Where 
thousands of people are gathered together even an 
occasionally shuffling of the feet is a serious disturb- 
ance. No sort of floor is noiseless, certainly none 
that is possible in a temporary structure — therefore 
the sawdust covering. This is absolutely soundless 
and by giving it a base of tamped tanbark it is also 
impervious to fire. In many cities where the danger 
of fire has been urged against it, the mere expedient 
of throwing a shovelful of blazing coals upon the saw- 
dust floor and watching them die out has convinced 
the authorities that their fears were vain. So 
thoroughly persuaded is Mr. Sunday of the utility of 
the tabernacle that he has refused to use large audi- 
toriums in the rare instances where he has found 
cities supplied with buildings large enough to accom- 
modate his crowds. There are other and psychological 
aspects of the tabernacle idea, such as its democracy, 
accessibility and uniqueness, which need not be con- 
sidered at this time. 

For two or three years Mr. Sunday struggled on 
with only the assistance of his wife and such help as 
came from the cooperating ministers of the community 
in which he was laboring. Another of the fundamental 
facts of a Sunday campaign, that of absolute coopera- 
tion and unity among the inviting churches, was also 
insisted upon from the first. 

In spite of all the obstacles and difficulties the 
work grew, so did the pile of sermons, and some of 
them amplified, modernized and intensified are doing 
duty today. 



TENTS, TABERNACLES AND OTHER THINGS 93 

An interesting if unverified account is given of 
the origin of the phrase ''hitting the trail." Accord- 
ing to the Steuhenville Gazette the phrase originated 
during Mr. Sunday's first campaign on the Puget 
Sound. The tabernacle there was built according to 
the present well known plans and the use of sawdust 
and shavings made a particular appeal to the lum- 
bermen who predominate in that region. Trails are 
cut through the western mountains and in the more 
sparsely settled districts, furnish the only means of 
communication from one settlement to another. 

The Steuhenville Gazette says : "The woodsmen 
sometimes wander far away from camp and are lost 
in the primeval forest. In their wanderings if they 
can hit the trail they are saved as it leads to the 
safety and shelter of the camp. So on the pathway of 
life if you can 'hit the trail' of God's mercy through 
the Lord Jesus Christ you are led to safety. So these 
rude lumbermen in their camp language giving up 
self to God and going down the sawdust aisle of the 
tabernacle were 'Hitting the Trail.' The phrase stuck 
to the Sunday party ever since and it has a thrilling 
touch of the wildwood and a meaning that is very 
appropriate and beautiful when taken in the language 
of the backwoods." 

Mr. Sunday does not sing and cannot sing, and 
one of the very first things that he recognized was the 
need of a musical assistant. The first man to occupy 
this position officially was Fred G. Fischer. Mr. 
Fischer began his work with Mr. Sunday, January 4, 
1900, at Bedford, Iowa, and continued it until July 
15, 1910, at Everett, Washington, when Homer Rode- 



94 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

heaver become the choir leader. In commenting upon 
his association with Mr. Sunday, Mr. Fischer says: 

My work had to do with the musical end, as 
soloist and chorus conductor for five years, after 
which, because of larger and longer meetings, a 
soloist was added to the party. I then gave my 
attention to the chorus and song services doing 
some solo and duet work. 

Mr. Sunday and I made up the party in the 
early years of the work. Length of our stay in a 
community was two and one-half to three weeks. 
Gradually the work grew, the party was enlarged 
and longer time was spent in a place. 

It was in this earlier period of his work that ]\Ir. 
Sunday attracted the attention of some few magazine 
writers. In the American Magazine for September, 
1907, Lindsay Denison gives this impression of one 
of the earlier meetings : 

To one who has attended a Billy Sunday 
revival the stor}- of the methods by which he 
achieves these results seems almost incredible. But 
by his words you must know him. Some of his 
sermons and prayers, in cold type, are of a sort to 
make all New England shiver with horror and 
cause the ungodly to giggle. But they make con- 
verts, the converts become church members — and 
the army of salvation is magnified by thousands of 
permanent recruits. Finicky critics must consider 
carefully before they deplore the Rev. WilHam A. 
Sunday. It has been our habit for centuries to 
discuss religion and the affairs of the soul in a King 
James's vocabulary, to depart from that custom 
has come to seem something like sacrilege. Billy 
Sunday talks to people about God and their souls 



TENTS, TABERNACLES AND OTHER THINGS 95 

just as people talk to one another six days in the 
week, across the counter or the dinner table or on 
the street. 

No ambition for the acclaim that comes from the 
masses seems to have had any weight with Mr. Sunday 
in the choice of his fields of labor. That he was almost 
fifty before he became nationally famous as an evan- 
gelist is due more to the size of the communities in 
which he worked than to any other one thing. Nat- 
urally difiident despite a seeming assurance when in 
the pulpit, he long hesitated to accept the calls that 
came from the big cities which are the eyes of the 
world. This disinclination on his part was intensified 
because it was shared by Mrs. Sunday and it was only 
by degrees that the remarkable organization which Mr. 
Sunday has perfected demonstrated its adaptability to 
the more complex conditions which obtain in the con- 
gested centers of population. True to his earliest dis- 
position to heed the call for service when he was 
sure he received that call Mr. Sunday gradually under- 
took larger and larger responsibilities until his work 
took him to the truly metropolitan centers of the 
United States. 



'^ 



CHAPTER IX 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUNDAY'S REVIVAL 
CAMPAIGNS 

Sowing the seed — Invitations — Necessary unity of in 
viting churches — Incidental expenses, how guaran- 
teed and how paid — Newspaper pubhcity — Cottage 
prayer meetings — Building the tabernacle — Train- 
ing the choir — Dedication of tabernacle — The evan- 
gelist arrives — Organization of ushers, personal 
workers, trained nurses and takers of collections — 
The first surprises — The first call for converts — The 
uniform success of the organization — Mr. Sunday's 
offers from the outside — What a big campaign costs. 

97 






J^ 



CHAPTER IX 



CO thousands who have participated in a Sunday 
campaign merely as individuals they are more 
or less of a mystery. To thousands who have 
only a reading knowledge of them they are unbelieve- 
able. To the few who have had part as aids or cogs 
in the great machinery which is set in motion in every 
place where Mr. Sunday conducts a campaign, the 
results are almost inevitable. 

Through more than twenty years of work and 
experimentation Mr. Sunday has contrived a detailed 
system which to all observers, interested, disinterested 
and prejudiced alike appears practically infallible. 
Time after time, as new territory has been approached, 
the prediction has been made freely that in that in- 
stance Mr. Sunday or his method of operation would 
fail. Yet time after time he has emerged at the end 
of a six or seven weeks' campaign with flying colors 
and with new laurels added to those which already 
marked phenomenal achievements. When unexpected 
obstacles have presented themselves the genius of the 
evangelist always has proved sufficient to overcome 
them. 

For this work Mr. Sunday takes no credit to 
himself. Uniformly he gives to Almighty God the 
honor of whatever success has attended his labors. 
He does not believe, however, in leaving anything to 
chance, nor in imposing on Divine Goodness by any- 
thing which even remotely resembles shirking. As a 

99 V" 

^^ \ 

f *•■ • Ik 

„•.. ^ \ V. ^■ 



100 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

result he and his associates work with prodigious 
vigor and energy through every minute of the cam- 
paign. But no amount of energy, nor anything short 
of a miracle, like the parting of the Red Sea, would 
account for the success attendant upon all the Sunday 
revivals if it did not begin before the arrival of the 
evangelist. 

It is in the preliminary campaign and in the 
masterly handling of details that Mr. Sunday demon- 
strates his superiority over all other workers in his 
field. For years the demands upon Mr. Sunday's time 
have been such that if he accepted all invitations he 
would be booked at least ten years in advance. Obvi- 
ously this gives him an opportunity to pick and choose. 

Here, then, is the first note of the scale which 
must be sounded in order to realize the full harmony 
of the results obtained. The mere invitation to come 
to a city has no great weight with the evangelist. The 
city not only must want him, but must want him with 
a consummate fervor. A fine instinct resident in the 
evangelist, and largely enjoyed by his wife, enables 
him to sense to a nicety the real anxiety of any com- 
munity to entertain him. 

Committees which call upon him during cam- 
paigns, beholding the phenomenal results obtained, 
are not slow to make almost any promise exacted of 
them. Realizing that not more than one out of four 
invitations can be accepted, they press forward with a 
renewed eagerness which naturally places them en 
rapport with the evangelist and his work. Thus there 
is established in the inviting committee the nucleus 
of the necessary local organization. 



PHILOSOPHY OF SUNDAY^S CAMPAIGNS lOl 

Next comes the unity of evangelical churches and 
the abandoning of all conflicting services in the com- 
munity during the campaign. The larger the city the 
more this demand meets with resistance; but since 
resistance in no wise affects the evangelist, and since 
compliance with his request is an indispensable pre- 
requisite to a campaign, the second force for coopera- 
tion and interest is set in motion. 

Next comes the campaign for incidental expenses. 
It is one of the Sunday doctrines that religion in all 
its phases should be self-supporting, and he will start 
upon no revival service the full expenses of which 
have not been guaranteed in advance. A peculiar 
aspect of this rule is, that never in his career has the 
guarantee been invoked — always during the progress 
of the meeting Mr. Sunday raises by collections more 
money than is needed to cover the entire cost of the 
series. 

The preliminary underwriting of a guarantee 
fund, however, furnishes the third force which draws 
people together, arouses their activity and compels 
their cooperation. "Where a man's treasure is, there 
is his heart also," and the men who have signed their 
names to a guarantee aggregating from $10,000 to 
$25,000 are very apt to work to make a success of 
the meetings for which their money is pledged, even 
though there is a moral certainty that they never will 
have to pay a cent of what they guarantee. 

At this point, or even before, the element of ex- 
tensive publicity enters into the campaign. News- 
papers in any community, whether large or small, 
must necessarily pay attention to an enterprise which 
the business men of the town or city are backing to 



102 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

the extent of thousands and thousands of dollars. The 
element of publicity continues with increasing vigor 
to the very end of all campaigns, and one of the 
remarkable features in connection with it is the fact 
that this publicity is never sought by any direct or 
overt act — it comes naturally almost spontaneou ■ ly. 
and is easily the fourth factor toward preparing the 
field for the advent of the evangelist. 

Complete success demands that all phases of in- 
terest and energy be correlated and combined in the 
single unit, which is the series of meetings. Most 
important in the estimation of the evangelist is the 
series of cottage and district prayer meetings which 
begin two or three weeks prior to the opening of the 
campaign. For securing results in this line the com- 
munity is divided according to wards and districts, 
and an organization somewhat akin to political 
machinery is perfected and set in motion. District 
and sub-districts have their captains or leaders, 
and these in turn report to larger divisions. At the 
headquarters, which have been established prior to 
this time, there is an exact knowledge of what activity 
is going forward in every part of the city. Wherever 
there is a lagging or failure to show zeal trained 
specialists are sent to awaken a sense of responsibility 
and concern. 

Next of the forces put in motion for the welding 
of interest and for the accentuation of publicity is the 
building of the tabernacle. For many years Mr. Sun- 
day's party has had as one of its members a practical 
builder and architect. This man reaches the city from 
four to five weeks before the opening of the meetings. 
The site of a tabernacle having been chosen in advance, 



PHILOSOPHY OF SUNDAY^S CAMPAIGNS 10^ 

with the approval of Mr. Sunday who always insists 
upon a convenient, accessible, down-town location, the 
builder calls for voluntary workmen. A special effort 
is made to enlist the services of prominent church 
workers, and the spectacle of such men donning over- 
alls and acting as carpenters is one which never fails 
to excite curiosity and arouse interest. Prominent 
preachers, well-known doctors, lawyers with state-wide 
reputation working shoulder to shoulder with clerks, 
mechanics and school teachers is a scene that is sure 
to arouse interest and receive generous newspaper at- 
tention. Committees of women from the cooperating 
churches are solicited to take charge of decorating the 
interior as soon as the structure has been roofed. 

In the meantime, another very important force 
has been at work in the collection and training of the 
people who are to constitute the choir. As previously 
noted there is an approximation in the relation of 
choir and audience of one to ten. Musical people are 
known for their enthusiasm and energy. Singing is 
remarkable for the impress which it makes on large 
crowds. The preliminary training which this choir 
receives gives the evangelist the kind of a field force 
which develops in effectiveness as the campaign pro- 
ceeds. 

Then comes the dedication. The practice has been 
to secure some noted divine from a city where Mr. 
Sunday previously has conducted a campaign and to 
have him preach the dedicatory sermon. Local min- 
isters prominent in the campaign have other places on 
the program. By this time one or two of the advance 
members of the party probably are in town and direct- 



104 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

ing the forces already existing into channels of maxi- 
mum usefulness. 

It is not the usual thing for these advance mem- 
bers to be unduly complimentary or conciliatory. In- 
deed, the day or two next preceding the arrival of the 
evangelist often are among the most uncomfortable 
of the entire campaign from inception to culmination. 
The feeling that with all their earnestness and good 
intentions they yet may have failed in properly direct- 
ing their efforts places the entire local contingent on 
the qui vive, and when finally Air. Sunday arrives a 
degree of expectancy and suppressed excitement, 
which is almost without counterpart in civic experi- 
ence, makes itself felt. 

So much for the major preparations and the chief 
forces which combine in making fertile the field and 
ready the w^orkers before the actual meetings begin. 
They are only a portion, howxver, of the many de- 
tails which make for the ultimate success of the en- 
deavor. An organization for ushers that operates like 
clock w^ork and is equal to any general emergency, is 
one of the lesser portions of the machinery; a com- 
pletely equipped emergency hospital in some corner of 
the tabernacle, and out of sight from the audience, 
is another; trained nurses and hospital helpers are 
always on hand, as are one or more regular physicians. 
Even the taking of the collection is made spectacular 
by the use of tin pans which are rapidly passed to the 
melodious jingle of silver and copper coins. Outside 
the tabernacle, but near at hand, there is a nursery 
where mothers may leave their children in the care 
of professional nurses, and be sure they will be re- 
turned to them in first-class condition when the services 



fHiLosof^HY OP Sunday's camJpaigns 105 

are over. On the platform there are always provided 
from a half dozen to a dozen and a half desks for 
newspaper men. Telephones are installed in the taber- 
nacle for the convenience of the evangelist's party and 
for the press representatives. Such matter as should 
properly be given publicity always is easily accessible 
to those whose duty it is to minister to the public in 
that line. Thus a perfectly oiled piece of machinery 
awaits the touch of the evangelist when he steps into 
the pulpit for the first time and faces an audience com- 
posed usually of the regular church members of the 
congregations which have united in extending the call 
to him. 

They are not in for a complacent praise of their 
virtues, nor for a congratulatory address on their pre- 
liminary work. Instead, the sins of omission and com- 
mission of those whose names are regularly on the 
church roster receive a scathing arraignment. Three 
times in one day this will happen, and before twenty- 
four hours have passed the town is ringing with won- 
der at the new order of things. No amount of prelimi- 
nary announcement ever has been able to prepare a 
community for what is coming to it. Those hearing 
him for the first time never know what to expect. 

So much for the start. For the rest, the indom- 
itable zeal, the phenomenal vigor, the exceptional 
plainness of speech of the evangelist must be credited 
with the major portion of the success that follows. 

Ordinarily Mr. Sunday preaches from ten days to 
two weeks before any invitation is issued to those who 
may be under conviction of sin. In the meantime by 
great activity he has familiarized himself through per- 
sonal contact with all the leading forces and factors in 



106 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

the city life. He calls on city, county and state offi- 
cials ; he visits prisons and penitentiaries, almshouses 
and hospitals; either in person or through his assist- 
ants, noonday meetings are held in factories, in work- 
shops, in churches and in private homes. The inner 
circle of the so-called "four hundred" is penetrated. 
The outer bounds of the most degenerate classes are 
made to feel the force that is at work ; from center to 
circumference the community is stirred. Such is the 
prodigious energy that gets in motion, that thousands 
who would follow it are prone to let most of their 
work-a-day activities go by default. In church and in 
barroom, on the streets and in the offices, at clubs and 
in factories, among leaders and among those who fol- 
low, without distinction of race, color or creed, the 
revival campaign becomes within a very few days the 
one general and accepted topic of conversation. Poli- 
tics pass unheeded and business becomes a secondary 
consideration. 

Each time Mr. Sunday has approached a city 
larger than the scene of his previous operation, the 
prediction has been made freely that here he would be 
unable to make the preponderating impressions that 
had been his previous rule. Invariably these predic- 
tions have been marked by failure. As the campaign 
has progressed Mr. Sunday has put his fingers upon 
the various leaders who can be counted upon at the 
proper moment to use their influence, by precept or 
example, to turn the tide of their fellows lives into the 
channel of higher thoughts, better resolves and right 
living generally. Thus are marshaled all the forces 
which in the end combine for complete success. 



PHILOSOPHY OF SUNDAY^S CAMPAIGNS 107 

Much has been said in public prints of the volun- 
tary offerings made to Mr. Sunday at the close of each 
campaign. These are exactly what the term implies : 
While in some instances his friends may interest them- 
selves in securing promises to this fund, the evangelist 
himself at no time takes any part in it, nor will he 
receive or permit to be received for him any money 
or moneys until the last day of the campaign. At that 
time through the local leaders an appeal is made in his 
behalf. What enthusiastic appreciation coupled with 
a competitive spirit will do in these instances has been 
truly remarkable. Yet the same amount of energy 
and the same system employed in commercial fields 
would have resulted in equal or greater gains. 

After he had effectually established himself as 
an evangelist offers of $500 and even more per day 
were received from various Chautauquas and Lyceum 
bureau managers. Invariably these have been declined 
and where Mr. Sunday has gone outside his prescribed 
routes for a day or so, it has been with no cost beyond 
the expenses incurred in making the trip. 

The size of Mr. Sunday's party of assistants 
varies with the size of the community and the length 
of the stay. The usual practice has been to exact 
of the local organization one-half the sum paid to these 
assistants, the remainder of their fee Mr. Sunday him- 
self pays out of the voluntary offering given him on 
the last (lay of each campaign. The expenses incident 
to a six or seven weeks' campaign, including all the 
ramifications of entertainment, special meetings, cost 
of helpers, construction of tabernacle, etc., in a city of 
150,000 to 200,000, is very large. The multiplicity of 
details is hardly to be believed by one not having ac- 



lOS REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

tual experience. The following official recapitulation 
of the auditing committee of the campaign at Colum- 
bus, Ohio, made while it was in progress may be taken 
as typical : 

Addit'l 
Tabernacle Accts. Paid Expenses Refunds 

Lumber $5,678.40 

Labor 1,219.00 

Metal Siding 287.74 

Ladders 28.02 $14.00 

Roofing and Paper 451.00 

Hardware 152.56 

Shavings 123.75 $22.50 

Gas Lights 65.00 

Electric Wiring 628.89 50.00 

Chairs 962.50 600.00 

Benches 24.00 20.00 

Signs 11.50 

Furnaces 348.26 

Decorations 67.05 60.29 

Fire Extinguishers 157.50 75.00 

Carpet 10.00 10.00 



$10,214.87 



Lot 

Taking down and replacing 

billboards $113.06 200.00 

Clearing lot 160.00 

Rent for extra ground 7.50 

Restoring Airdome 5.00 95.00 

$125.56 



PHILOSOPHY OF SUNDAY^S CAMPAIGNS 109 

Other Expenses 

Printing $399.79 35.00 

Postage 128.89 25.00 

Office Expenses 17.68 15.00 

Office Salaries 96.75 100.00 

Interest 33.73 

Entertainment 336.27 424.00 

Bonds 20.00 

Insurance 162.85 40.00 

Dedication 50.00 

Coal 97.79 350.00 

Gas and Electricity 79.50 575.00 

Local Transportation 3.50 395.00 

Salaries of Workers 1,794.77 1,425.00 

Fred's Room 66.75 10.00 

Rent of Memorial Hall 100.00 

Nursery 90.00 

Electrician 36 . 75 

Watchman 152.00 87.50 

Badges 25.10 

Telephones 29.05 6.00 

Rent for Southern Theater 

meeting 46.50 

Reception at Y. M. C. A. by 

Sunday 11.25 

Team expenses — Gill, Peacock, 

Spiece 64.30 

Advertising 5.21 5.00 

Wesley Chapel Meetings 40.00 

Incidental Expenses 11.25 25.00 

Extra Expenses Sunday Party, 

Long Distance Telephone and 

Telegraph 100.00 



$3,632.93 $4,422.04 $769.00 



Grand Total Acc'ts paid. .$13,973.36 



110 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Recapitulation 

receipts 

Sunday Collections $13,849.35 

Church Carpenters 229 . 10 

Southern Theater Meeting 37.70 

Dedication 69 . 13 

Total Receipts to date $14,248.28 

Total Paid Out to date 18,973.36 

Balance on hand $13,973.36 

Bills paid to date 274.92 

Future Expenses — Estimated 4,422.04 

Total Budget $18,395.40 

Future Expenses — Estimated $4,422.04 

Cash on Hand 274.92 

Amount to Raise $4,147 12 

In explanation of this recapitulation which was 
prepared several weeks before the campaign closed, it 
is only fair to say that the entire $4,147.12 was raised, 
that all collections ceased more than a week before the 
close of the campaign, that several thousand dollars 
additional were raised for charity and that after the 
tabernacle had been sold and the other salvage incident 
to the campaign turned into money, there was more 
than $3,500 to be divided among the 60 co-operating 
churches. 

Thus Columbus had a seven weeks revival not 
only without expense to the guarantors who had sub- 
scribed to the company, but with a net profit to every 
church that participated. It was in addition to this 
total budget of more than $18,000 that the citizens of 
Ohio's capital contributed $21,000 as a free will of- 



PHILOSOPHY OF SUNDAY'S CAMPAIGNS 111 

fering to the evangelist himself. This immense sum 
was secured in three collections — one each at the morn- 
ing service, the afternoon service, and the evening ser- 
vice. With some variation as to detail the practice and 
the results in other cities has been the same. The state- 
ment here given is typical and shoves the many details 
which have to be provided in assuring the complete 
success of any campaign, yet in every instance in more 
than 20 years the public has met these expenses and 
has given a generous offering to the evangelist at the 
conclusion of the revival, an indication of apprecia- 
tion for what he has done. 



CHAPTER X 



SOME WHO HAVE ASSISTED 

Sunday's ability to select competent workers — Fred G. 
Fischer the first man — Rev. Elijah P. Brown an 
early worker — Melvin E. Trotter appears — Mr. 
Trotter's comments — A western author associate — 
Ohio contributes Homer A. Rodeheaver — B. D. 
Ackley's work — Something about Fred Seibert — 
Miss Grace Saxe and other assisting women — Rev. 
L. K. Peacock is called. 

113 



CHAPTER X 



T^BRAHAM Lincoln and George Washington pre- 
wU eminently among the many great men of the 
tf I world were characterized by the unusual wis- 
dom with which they drew about them assistants, sup- 
porters and advisers. Almost without exception this 
has been true of men who have been leaders among 
their kind, particularly in any movement that calls for 
organization. 

Apparently the day of one man power has passed. 
In this respect, as in many others, Rev. W. A. Sun- 
day is entitled to comparison with the most important 
men in the world's history of his day. The tremendous 
celerity with which his campaigns move is in harmony 
with the general spirit of rush which characterize the 
American people. 

It is important, therefore, that the many details 
and minor arrangements, which necessarily are left to 
others, be arranged in complete harmony with the gen- 
eral scheme and carried out with the exactitude of a 
railroad time table. In this Mr. Sunday and his party 
are particularly successful. Whenever the control of 
events is in his own hands the evangelist is never late. 
All his meetings start on time and close on time. At 
the myriad engagements which are part of every cam- 
paign, he is punctuality itself. He exacts the same 
respect for time of all those who assist him in his work. 

Beginning in 1898 with no other assistants than his 
wife and the local ministers the organization grew in 

115 



116 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

less than 15 years to comprise parties from 10 to 15. 
The number and personnel varied from time to time to 
meet the local conditions. For the larger cities Mr. 
Sunday has always arranged to have some one famil- 
iar with work among the young folks, for work among 
shop and factory people, and at prison and other penal 
institutions wherever they are found. Two or more 
soloists and a choir leader in addition to a pianist and 
private secretary are necessary adjuncts for the suc- 
cess of the work. A builder who goes in advance and 
prepares the tabernacle, a keeper of that tabernacle and 
in late years a general manager of the work, a sort 
of right-hand assistant to the evangelist, have become 
definite portions of the organization. Many well known 
evangelistic and missionary workers have been identi- 
fied with the Sunday party from time to time. 

Their church affiliation has played no part in their 
selection. Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalist, Pres- 
byterian and other of the evangelical churches have 
been represented. 

One of the very earliest of his assistants was 
Fred G. Fischer. *T began my work with Mr. Sunday 
January 4, 1900," says Mr. Fischer, "ending it July 15, 
1910, making a continuous service of ten and one half 
years. My work had to do with the musical end, as 
soloist and musical conductor for five years, after 
which, because of the larger and longer meetings, a 
soloist was added to the party. I then gave my at- 
tention to the chorus and song services, doing some 
solo and duet work. Mr. Sunday and I made up the 
party in the earlier years of the work. The length of 
our stay in a community was from two and one-half 
to three weeks. Gradually the work grew, the party 



SOME WHO HAVE ASSISTED 117 

Was enlarged and longer time was spent in a place/* 
Serious impairment of his health required Mr. Fischer 
to give over his work with the evangelist after more 
than 10 years with him, and he was succeeded as musi- 
cal director by Homer A. Rodeheaver. After k pro- 
longed rest Mr; Fischer sufficiently recovered his health 
to renew his evangelistic efforts and in company with 
J. R. Hanley they have conducted meetings both in the 
East and Middle West, attended by very great success. 
Another helper whose reputation is coextensive 
with the religious field of the United States, is Rev. 
Elijah J. Brown, one time editor of The Ram's Horn. 
Mr. Brown was associated with Mr. Sunday beginning 
with a campaign in Austin, Minnesota, in February, 
1906 and concluding with the Galesburg, Illinois, cam- 
paign in November, 1907. Bad health on the part of 
Mr. Brown was the cause of separation in this case 
also. From time to time the editor was called in to 
assist briefly in subsequent campaigns. He occupied 
the position of confidential assistant and was for many 
years one of the most intimate of the several members 
of the party with the evangelist himself. 

One of the most distinguished and well known 
men who have contributed to the success of the Sun- 
day campaigns is Melvin E. Trotter of the famous 
City Rescue Mission at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. 
Trotter is another of those who were converted under 
the administrations of Harry Monroe at the Pacific 
Garden Mission. Mr. Trotter did not travel with Mr. 
Sunday but would come on just at the close of the se- 
ries and assist with the last meetings. "I never was 
officially connected with the Billy Sunday party" he 
says, "although I used to go and take his last Monday 



118 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

night sen-ice in nearly every meeting he had. In that 
way I kept in constant touch with the work in almost 
every cit>^ he was in. It is certainly wonderful the 
way he moves cities for God. I know of nothing like 
it in the world, and never read of any. 

"I have been in many cities after he has left 
them, and found that after a year, two years and even 
three years, the interest is as keen as could be. Some 
other cities the interest is not so keen, but I can ahnost 
always find a reason for that locally. 

'"The town or city that can land Billy Sunday is 
certainly fortunate. It means crowded churches ; much 
work for souls; finances plenty, and an all-round 

healthy spiritual growth. 

G. Walter Barr, well known through the Middle 
West as a writer of fiction and short stories, trav- 
eled with the Sunday party for a considerable time 
in the earlier campaigns in Iowa and Illinois. His 
descriptions of the meetings and his analysis of the 
character of the man although made in the opening 
years of the present centur}^ continue to circulate 
freely in the press of the country. 

Homer A. Rodeheaver is an Ohio product bom in 
Hocking county and educated in the ^lethodist school, 
Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware. Originally 
destined for a musical and dramatic career, he early 
abandoned all thought of this to take up music along 
religious lines. In addition to his choir work and solo 
work with the Sunday campaigns Mr. Rodeheaver is 
the head of a music publishing house in Chicago and 
in constant demand by Chautauqua and camp meeting 



SOME WHO HAVE ASSISTED 119 

assemblages. His musical compositions are in demand 
from coast to coast and he is one of the half dozen 
great religious song writers of the country. 

Associated with Mr. Rodeheaver in a musical ca- 
pacity, also acting as confidential secretary to Mr. Sun- 
day, is B. D. Ackley, whose home is Philadelphia. Mr. 
Ackle is a pianist of exceptional accomplishment, the 
author of many fine hymns, and is interested in a 
number of musical publications. Originally a railroad 
ticket handler in the East he abandoned this work 
when his musical ability forced itself upon the atten- 
tion of his associates. Mr. Ackley is a stenographer 
and one of the few in the country who is even par- 
tially successful in reporting Mr. Sunday in his tre- 
mendous rapid-fire flights of oratory. Mr. Ackley 
has composed the melodies for many of the songs 
which are most popular and effective during the Sun- 
day revivals. 

One of the unique characters of the Sunday party 
is Fred R. Seibert, who is known as ''the cow boy 
evangelist". He is also the keeper of the tabernacle 
and the one person who is on duty 24 hours out of 
24. Of German- Jewish extraction his features give 
him out tO' be rather one of the Mexicans with whom 
he associated so long, than what he really is. Born 
in Waverly, Iowa, he was broncho buster for many 
years and rode the range when that was an accom- 
plishment that tried the mettle of which men were 
made. He joined the Sunday party in 1905. With 
all his life in the West he is a graduate of the Moody 
Bible Institute, the author of a pamphlet on "Rescue 
the Perishing" and is an adept at Bible quotation. Pie 
can cite at will 1,400 verses from the Scripture. The 



120 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

conversion of Seibert dates back to 1895, when leav- 
ing a gaming table to go home in disgust he passed a 
church and was drawn by the music he heard to enter 
and participate in a revival then in progress. He 
was converted at that meeting and at once took up 
work among the ranchmen and cow boys who were 
his regular associates. 

In 1906 Miss Frances Miller, a newspaper woman 
of St. Louis joined the Sunday party. Her specialty 
has been work among business women and the or- 
ganizing of Bible classes, in which she has been pre- 
eminently successful. 

Miss Grace Saxe joined the Sunday forces in 
191 1. Miss Saxe has had a variety of experiences 
in missionary work and is also a contributor of some 
note to religious publications. While visiting in Egypt 
she was assigned to go down the Nile and get an in- 
terview with Colonel Theodore Roosevelt when he 
was returning from his famous hunting expedition in 
Africa. 

The general manager of the Sunday campaigns 
is Rev. L. K. Peacock, a minister of pronounced suc- 
cess in Western Pennsylvania, who gave up his pul- 
pit to follow Mr. Sunday. It is Mr. Peacock who first 
meets visiting delegations, who threshes out the pre- 
liminary arrangements for campaigns, who visits the 
city once or twice before the meetings open, and who 
is called upon to fill the pulpit upon those compara- 
tively rare occasions when Mr. Sunday for any rea- 
son cannot be present. The evangelist was attracted 
to Rev. Mr. Peacock by hearing him preach. He 
found that Peacock had taken a "run down" congrega- 
tion and built it up until it was the leading church of 



SOME WHO HAVE ASSISTED 121 

the city. "There is a man I want," Sunday remarked. 
He got him. 

Rev. Mr. Peacock is naturally allied to the 
United Presbyterian church in which he was ordained 
a minister in 1901. Houston, Pa. is his home. Mr. 
Peacock has the distinction of being the youngest 
moderator who ever presided over the United Pres- 
byterian Synod. He is a graduate of Westminster 
College and of the Allegheny Theological Seminary. 



CHAPTER XI 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 

Early records uncertain — Compilation by Judge H. E. 
Burgess — List of campaigns, conversions and col- 
lections — Early records in Iowa towns — Complacent 
Maryville, Mo. — Elgin, 111., builds first tabernacle — 
Keokuk, Iowa, and Pontiac, 111., show growth — First 
entrance into Colorado — Record in Burlington, Iowa 
— First work in Minnesota — Back to Colorado — 
Bloomington, 111., makes a record — First appearance 
in the East — Spokane, Wash., eclipses all precedent — 
First campaign in Ohio. 

123 



CHAPTER XI 



CHE trite adage "mighty oaks from little acorns 
grow" has no better exemplification than in the 
history of the W. A. Sunday campaigns. Th.'* 
monster movements swaying thousands and interest- 
ing in some instances close to a million people in a 
single city are the outgrowth of comparatively tiny 
meetings whose history is lost in the shadowy recol ■ 
lections of the memories a quarter century old. This, 
for no better reason than at the time they were not 
considered important. The careful records which the 
press of the country has compiled in the day of the 
big campaigns were not made. 

A detailed enumeration of even the more important 
campaigns must lack variety and possibly that ele- 
ment of spectacular interest which attaches to a ma- 
jority of the activities of the evangelist. No work 
that purports to be a biographical survey of his life, 
however, would be complete without such an enumera- 
tion. Unfortunately such of the records as exists 
are in many instances conflicting or lacking in def- 
inite authority. In that which follows a careful 
effort has been made to sift facts from fancies and 
so far as possible to give the best available informa- 
tion even where it has not been possible to verify 
statements made. 

The commonly accepted list of campaigns to- 
gether with the reported number of conversions as 
this has gone the rounds of the press is given belpWr 

l?5 



126 



REV. BILLY SUNDAY 



It should be definitely understood that this is an un- 
official list and that diligent efforts to verify a number 
of the statements and figures have been without suc- 
cess. 



CAMPAIGNS 1904 AND 1905. 



Cities and States 

Marshall, Minn 

Sterling, 111 

Rockford, 111 

Elgin, 111 

Carthage, 111 

Pontiac, 111 

Jefferson, Iowa 

Bedford, Iowa 

Seymour, Iowa 

Centerville, Iowa 

Co r}^ don, Iowa 

Audubon, Iowa 

Atlantic, Iowa 

Harlan, Iowa 

Exira, Iowa 

Keokuk, Iowa 

Redwood Falls, Minn 

Mason City, Iowa 

Dixon, 111 

Canon City, Colo 

Macomb, 111 

Canton, III 



Conversions 

600 

1,678 

1,000 

800 

650 

1,100 

900 

600 

600 

900 

500 

500 

600 

400 

400 

1,000 

600 

1,000 

1,875 

950 

1,880 

1,120 



Collections 



11,500 



2,200 



2,000 



3,100 



CAMPAIGNS 1905-1906 



Rantoul, 111. ... 

Aledo. Ill 

Burlington, Iowa 
Rochester, Minn. 
Princeton, 111. . . . 
Austin, Minn. . . . 

Freeport, 111 

Prophetstown, 111. 



550 
974 
2,484 
1,230 
2,325 
1,388 
1,365 
900 



4,000 
2,250 
5,036 
2,250 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 



127 



CAMPAIGNS 1906-1907 
Cities and States Conversions 

Salida, Colo 800 

Kewanee, 111 3,018 

Worthington, Minn 1,037 

Kankakee, 111 2,650 

Murphysboro, 111 2,180 

Fairfield, Iowa 1 , 118 

Knoxville, Iowa 1,017 

Gibson City 111 , 1,000 

CAMPAIGNS 1907-1908 

Galesburg, 111 2,580 

Muscatine, Iowa 3,579 

Bloomington, 111 4,266 

Decatur, 111 6,700 

Charlestown, 111 2,467 

Sharon, Pa 4,731 

CAMPAIGNS 1908-1909 

Jacksonville, 111 3,007 

Ottumwa, Iowa 3,732 

Spokane , Wash 5 , 300 

Springfield, 111 4,729 

Marshalltown, Iowa 2,026 

CAMPAIGNS 1909-1910 

Boulder , Colo 1 , 596 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa 2,906 

Youngstown, Ohio 5,915 

Danville, 111 5,000 

Bellingham, Wash 4,500 

Everett, Wash 4,000 

New Castle, Pa 6,683 

Waterloo , Iowa 4 , 500 



Collections 



2,100 
2,100 
2,100 
3,608 
3,148 



5,000 
5,611 
8,000 
10,372 
6,000 
6,330 



7,500 

7,353 

10,808 

10,734 

6,022 



3,490 
7,080 
12,000 
9,000 
6,000 
5,500 

8,000 



128 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

CAMPAIGNS 1911 

Cities and States Conversions Collections 

Portsmouth, Ohio 5,224 7,100 

Lima, Ohio 5,659 8,050 

Toledo, Ohio 7,686 15,423 

Erie, Pa 5,312 11,565 

Springfield, Ohio 6,804 12,000 

Wichita, Kansas 5,500 10,114 

CAMPAIGNS 1912-1913 

Canton, Ohio 5,640 12,500 

Wheeling, W. Va 8,437 17,450 

Fargo, N. D 4,000 5,000 

Beaver Falls, Pa 6,000 10,000 

East Liverpool, Ohio 6,354 12,554 

MeKeesport, Pa 10,022 13,438 

Columbus, Ohio 18,137 21,000 

Wilkes Barre, Pa 16,854 23,527 

South Bend, Ind 6,458 11,200 

Beginning with the campaign at Rantoul, Illinois, 
in 1905 Judge H. E. Burgess of Aledo, Illinois com- 
menced and has continued a compilation of the Sunday 
campaigns. He has concerned himself only with the 
number of conversions and his list down to the South 
Bend, Indiana, campaign is as follows: 

1905-1906 — Rantoul, 111., 550 ; Aledo, III, 974 ; 
Burlington, Iowa, 2,484; Rochester, Minn., 1,244; 
Princeton, III, 2,325; Austin, Minn., 1,388; Free- 
port, III, 1,365; Prophetstown, III, 900. 

igo6-igo7 — Salida, Colo., 612 ; Kewanee, III, 
8018; Worthington, Minn., 1,012; Kankakee, III, 
2,650; Murphysboro, III, 2,180; Fairfield, Iowa, 
1,118 ; Knoxville, Iowa, 1,051 ; Gibson City, III, 
1,089, 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 129 

1907-1908 — Galesburg, 111., 2,508 ; Muscatine, 
Iowa, 3,579; Bloomington, 111., 4,266; Decatur, III, 
6,213; Charlestown, 111., 2,467; Sharon, Pa., 4,525. 

1908-1909 — Jacksonville, 111., 3,007 ; Ottumwa, 
Iowa, 3,660; Spokane, Wash., 5,666; Springfield, 111., 
4,700; Marshalltown, Iowa, 1,987; Boulder, Colo., 
1,596; Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 2,967; Joplin, Mo., 2,937; 
Youngstown, Ohio, 5,915 ; Danville, 111., 3,127 ; Bel- 
lingham. Wash., 4,500 ; Everett, Wash., 2,494. 

1910-1911 — New Castle, Pa., 6,680; Waterloo, 
Iowa, 3,357; Portsmouth, Ohio, 5,224; Lima, Ohio, 
5,659; Toledo, Ohio, 7,360; Erie, Pa., 5,312. 

1911-1912 — Springfield, Ohio, 6,804; Wichita, 
Kansas, 5,245; Canton, Ohio, 5,640; Wheeling, W. 
Va., 8,437; Fargo, N. D., 4,000. 

1912-191S — Beaver Falls, Pa., 6,000; East 
Liverpool, Ohio, 6,354; McKeesport, Pa., 10,022; 
Columbus, Ohio, 18,137; WilkesBarre, Pa., 16,854; 
South Bend, Ind., 6,458. 

Seymour, Iowa, boasts one of the very earliest 
campaigns. Its duration was brief as measured by 
the standards of later years. Beginning December 23, 
1900, it was concluded January 20, 1901, according to 
a friend who participated in that campaign Mr. Sun- 
day came from Elgin, lUinois, and went to Afton, 
Iowa. The conversions numbered but 400 and the 
free-will offering was $568. Fred G. Fischer was the 
only assistant. 

N. W. Rowell of Afton, Iowa, is authority for the 
statement that the campaign in that town began March 
6, 1901, and concluded on the 27th of the same month. 
The number of conversions given is 300 and the free 
will ofifering $750. Mr. Rowell adds this statement : 
"not to exceed 10 per cent of these 300 remained 
faithful members of the church." 

9 



130 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Among the earlier campaigns for which no abso- 
lute date can be assigned is that of Bedford, Iowa. 
Rev. J. W. Neyman, pastor of the Baptist Church 
there, placed the conversions between 300 and 400 and 
the free will offering at $925. He says there were no 
assistants, but in all probability he has forgotten Mr. 
Fischer. 

Rev. C. H. John, secretary of the Nodaway 
County Anti-Saloon Alliance, at Maryville, Mo., 
writes, ''Air. Sunday was here some 15 years ago. The 
church people failed to give him any support in the 
way of co-operation and his work here was not a 
success. Personally I never have thought that the 
fault was his. The Maryville churches were at 'ease 
in Zion' and did not want to be disturbed. Their 
greatest need today is one or two months of such work 
as Billy Sunday is able to do." From all of which it 
appears that even in that early part of his work Mr. 
Sunday did not always meet with the co-operation 
which is essential to his greatest results. 

The editor of the Gazette of Sterling, Illinois, 
another one of the early campaigns, gives the number 
of conversions as 1,652 and the free will offering as 

$3,250. 

In light of developments it is almost amusing to 
find instances where a Sunday campaign has com- 
pletely passed out of history. Repeated inquiries to 
various sources of information in Elgin, Illinois, pro- 
voked the answers that so far as these people knew 
Mr. Sunday had never conducted a campaign in their 
city. Mr. Fischer the first musical assistant of the 
evangelist, however, fixes the date as early in 1900 and 
credits Elgin with being the seat of the first taber- 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 131 

nacle ever built for these meetings. The future may 
see in Elgin a repetition of the history of Homer 
whose last resting place is claimed to be in several 
cities through which the poet begged his way in life. 

The editor of the News in Atlantic, Iowa, fixes 
the campaign in that city as February 1902, the num- 
ber of conversions 565 and the free will offering at 
$1,500. Fred G. Fischer and local pastors constituted 
the only assistants at the time. 

Beginning with the year 1904 reasonably definite 
records are available. 

Marshall, Minnesota, enjoyed a successful cam- 
paign in the months of January and February 1904, the 
number of conversions is given as 620 and the free 
will offering $2,100. 

The campaign at Keokuk, Iowa, marks the first 
appearance of Rev. I. E. Honeywell. The work in 
that city began the 5th of October 1904, and continued 
for four weeks after which the evangelist and his party 
moved to Pontiac, Illinois. In Keokuk there were 
900 conversions reported, and $1,900 in free-will of- 
fering. 

Exactly one month was spent in Pontiac. The 
campaign began November 5, and closed December 5, 
1904. The number of conversions is given by the 
editor of the Leader of that town as 1,054 and the free- 
will offering as $2,503. Rev. Mr. Honeywell and Fred 
G. Fischer were the assistants. 

Even at this period of his work Mr. Sunday made 
frequent long jumps between his campaigns. 

Canon City, Colorado, according to the editor of 
the Record of that town, had a campaign beginning 
March 26, 1905, and ending April 23, after which Mr, 



132 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Sunday went to Macomb, Illinois. The number of 
conversions is given as 934 and the amount of money 
given to Mr. Sunday as $2,200, while $2,300 was re- 
quired for local expenses. In addition to Mr. Fischer 
and Rev. Mr. Honeywell, a Mrs. Connett of Cheyenne, 
assisted as soloist. 

At Macomb, Illinois, the campaign started April 
29 and concluded May 28, 1905. The conversions are 
given as 1880 and the free-will offering to Mr. Sun- 
day, $3,146.30. 

W. H. Davidson, Managing Editor of the Bur- 
lington Hazuk-eye, Burlington, Iowa, is the next to 
report a campaign. "Mr. Sunday" he says, "came to 
Burlington from Aledo, Illinois, beginning his meet- 
ings here on Thursday November 9, 1905. The meet- 
ings closed December 17. After a week's rest at his 
home in Chicago Mr. Sunday went to Rochester, Min- 
nesota, where he began a series of meetings on De- 
cember 28, 1905. The result of his meetings in Bur- 
lington were 2,500 conversions, and a free-will offer- 
ing of $4,000. Mr. Sunday was assisted by Rev. I. 
E. Honeywell, as chief of staff, and F. G. Fischer, 
musical director." 

The Rochester, Minnesota, meeting almost equaled 
that of Burlington according to the report of A. P. 
Gove, editor of the Rochester Daily Bulletin. Mr. 
Gove locates the campaign as beginning December 
28, 1905 and ending January 29, 1906, "The first ser- 
mon" he says, "was not preached until December 30." 
From Rochester Mr. Sunday went to Princeton, Ill- 
inois. The number of conversions is given as 1,244 
and the free-will offering at $2,206.81. "In addition 
to this sum and the expenses of the campaign $16,- 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 133 

000 was raised immediately following the closing of 
the Sunday meetings for the construction of a Y. M. 
C. A. building." The same assistants participated in 
these meetings as in the previous ones. 

After a rest of only a few days the Princeton, 
Illinois, campaign opened February ii, 1906 and con- 
cluded March 17, after which Mr. Sunday again re- 
turned to Minnesota, that time to the town of Austin. 
The number of conversions reported was 2,225 with 
a free will ofifering of $5,170. The assistants were 
the same as at the earlier meetings of that season. The 
statements made here are vouched for by H. U. Bailey, 
editor of the Bureau County Republican. 

Judged in numbers the Austin, Minnesota, cam- 
paign did not measure up quite to the mark of the 
campaign or two last preceding. It opened in March 
and resulted in 1,387 conversions and a free will of- 
fering of $2,367.53. This is the first campaign of 
record were Rev. Elijah P. Brown, one-time editor 
of The Rams Horn, appears as an assistant. From 
Austin Mr. Sunday went to Freeport, Illinois. The 
data of the Austin campaign is gathered from the files 
of the Herald of that city. 

Mr. Sunday's second incursion into Colorado was 
made at the opening of his work after a summer's rest 
September 22, 1906, at Salida. The campaign ran one 
day less than a month closing October 21, according 
to F. C. Woody, cashier of the First National Bank 
at Salida. Mr. Woody does not give the number of 
conversions, but the unofficial record is 612, which 
compares with the usual ratio observed between the 
number of convers'ons and the free-will offering 
which in the case of Salida was $1,300. This is the 



134 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

first campaign in which "Fred" is mentioned as hav- 
ing charge of the tabernacle. 

By the opening of the next season Mr. Sunday- 
had largely increased his working force. His campaign 
at Galesburg, Illinois, began Saturday evening, Sep- 
tember 28, 1907, and continued through Monday even- 
ing, November 4, of that year. From Galesburg he 
went to Muscatine, Iowa. The conversions are given 
as 2,508 and the offering as $6,340.71. In this cam- 
paign not only did Mr. Fischer, Mr. Seibert and Rev. 
Elijah P. Brown, but a Mr. Butler appears as soloist, 
Miss Miller is mentioned for the first time as having 
charge of Bible class and Melvin E. Trotter assisted 
at the meetings. W. W. Whipple, editor of the Gales- 
burg Mail, is authority for data concerning the cam- 
paign in that city. 

The proportions of the campaigns continued to 
grow steadily. At Muscatine, Iowa, according to 
Frank D. Throop, publisher of the Journal, there were 
3,579 conversions and a free-will offering of $5,611.23. 
These meetings began November 10, 1907, and closed 
December 15. After the Muscatine campaign Mr. 
Sunday went for a visit to his mother who then lived 
in Kansas. He remained there over the holidays re- 
suming his evangelistic work at Bloomington, Illi- 
nois. His assistants included Fred Seibert, F. G. 
Fischer, Mr. Butler, Miss Miller, Mr. and Mrs. 
Harper. There were 74 meetings in all and the cam- 
paign involved an expense of $4,500, which Mr. Sun- 
day as usual raised in addition to the free-will of- 
fering. This was one of the first places where an 
effort was made to keep track of the total number of 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 135 

attendants and they are estimated in excess of i8o,- 

000. 

At Bloomington, Illinois, according to J. L. Sco- 
field, General Secretary of the Y. M. C. A., the taber- 
nacle was made to seat 5,000 which was the largest up 
to that time. Bloomington took on itself the credit of 
being the scene of the first big meeting. The cam- 
paign opened December 27, 1907, and ended February 
3, 1908, after which Mr. Sunday went to Decatur, 
Illinois. "The tabernacle cost $4,500," according to 
Mr. Scofield, "the meetings lasted 38 days with 3,865 
converts. Mr. Sunday received $7,763.17 and the ex- 
pense of the meetings including the tabernacle was 
$7,786.54. We had 102 regular meetings, with 375,- 
400 attendance ; 896 cottage prayer meetings, with 
1,400 attendance; 25 Court House meetings for men 
with 1,500 attendance. Meetings for women were 
held with 10,500 in attendance. In all a grand total 
of 414,000." Mr. Pledger was Mr. Sunday's assistant, 
Mr. Fischer had charge of the music, Mr. Ackley 
pianist, Mr. Seibert in charge of the tabernacle, Mr. 
Gill advance man and Miss Miller Bible teacher. Mrs. 
Sunday also assisted in the women's work. During 
the meetings Mr. Sunday had a number of evangelists 
and missionary workers come to Bloomington to as- 
sist for a day or two at a time." 

The records established at Bloomington were im- 
mediately distanced at Decatur, however, and the in- 
vincible nature of the Sunday organization was fur- 
ther demonstrated. W. F. Hardy, editor of the 
Herald, has abstracted from his files the information 
concerning the meetings and vouches for its accuracy. 
He says : "The campaign opened February 7, 1908, and 



136 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

continued until !March 17, after vv'hich the evangelist 
left for Charleston, Illinois. The number of conver- 
sions was 6,209 and the free-will offering $11,- 
379.56. The assistants were Clift'ord Pledger, evan- 
gelist; Fred Seibert, custodian of the tabernacle and 
personal workers ; Fred G. Fischer, chorister ; Charles 
Butler, soloist; and B. D. Ackley, pianist. 

Making his first entrance into what is usually 
known as the East Mr. Sunday opened a campaign at 
Sharon, Pennsylvania, in May, 1908, continuing for 
five weeks after which he returned to \\'inona Lake 
for a vacation. According to Ralph W. Roberts, sec- 
retary of the Y. M. C. A., the number of conversions 
in Sharon was 4,700 and the free will offering $6,200. 
The assistants were Messrs, Fischer, Ackley, Gill, 
Pledger and Seibert, and Miss Miller. 

Following his vacation Mr. Sunday once more re- 
turned to Illinois opening his fall work with a cam- 
paign at Jacksonville. The first meeting was held on 
September 25 and the series continued through No- 
vember 5, 1908. This campaign immediately preceded 
the one at Ottumwa, Iowa. The Jacksonville Journal 
gives the conversions at 3.002 and the free-will of- 
fering $7,837,20. The usual assistants participated. 
They were: B. D. Ackley, Fred G. Fischer, Fred Sei- 
bert, C. P. Pledger and Charles Butler. 

Ottumwa, Iowa, enjoyed one of the big meetings 
of the fall of 1908. E. P. Canny of the Ottumzca 
Courier^ is authority for the statement that : "Coming 
from Jacksonville, Illinois, ]\Ir. Sunday began a series 
of meetings in Ottumwa November 6, 1908 and con- 
tinued through to December 16. The number of con- 
versions is given as 3,732 and the free-will offering is 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 137 

given as $7,355-77. The assistants were C. P. Pledger, 
Charles Butler, soloist ; Fred G. Fischer, choir leader ; 
Fred Seibert, in charge of tabernacle; B. D. Ackley, 
pianist, and Mrs. Muirhead, woman assistant. 

Many new phases of the work are developed in 
the campaign which followed Ottumwa, when Mr. 
Sunday made his first excursion into the extreme West, 
conducting a series of meetings at Spokane, Wash- 
ington. Spokane was the largest city the evangelist 
had undertaken up to that time, and he had doubts in 
his own mind as to his ability to handle so large a 
place. Spokane at that time had a population of loo,- 
ooo. Spokane established a new record in the taber- 
nacle line, building a structure calculated to seat lo,- 
ooo. Rev. Conrad Bluhm, of the Centenary Presby- 
terian Church at Spokane, reports the number of con- 
versions as 5,666, and the free-will offering as $10,871. 
The assistants were. Rev. C. P. Pledger, B. D. Ackley, 
Fred G. Fischer, Charles Butler, Fred Seibert, Mrs. 
Muirhead and Miss Miller. Rev. Mr. Bluhm was in- 
timately connected with the campaign and in speaking 
of it says : "His meetings began on Christmas night. 
I had feared the opening night, it happening on Christ- 
mas. Probably the most extensive publicity he had 
to that time received was given to announce his ad- 
vent to Spokane. We used the big advertising cars 
of our two trolley companies ; we sent to all the subur- 
ban railway stations huge posters ; we roused the In- 
land Empire of which Spokane is the nerve center, a 
district the size of New England, New York and New 
Jersey combined ; we got the unanimous support of 
our three big dailies ; also of most of the suburban 
press; we had large prints of the evangelist in the 



138 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

windows of the majority of our homes ; and from the 
pulpit, the hustings, and even- place where two or 
three were gathered together there we met them and 
they were Billy's. The impossible had been accom- 
plished — the man who was unknown, and who by 
most of our people was looked upon simply as a good 
evangelist instead of the evangelistic genius of .-Amer- 
ica had suddenly become the first man among us ; 
Christmas night the citizens gave him a reception that 
fairly swept the evangelist off his feet — the place was 
packed to the doors I 

'■]^Ir. Sunday has been in few places where his 
work has been more fundamental than in Spokane. 
To this center men happened from the British Colum- 
bias, from the Wenatchees, the Yakimas. from points 
in Oregon, from the coast, and from far off California. 
Later, from all these points, word came back express- 
ing gratitude for the Providence that had led them into 
the meetings that became their starting place for hea- 
ven. Similar letters came from hundreds Avho were 
converted by reading the excerpts from the papers of 
his wonderful sermons.'"' 

The fall of 1909 found ^Ir. Sunday again in Colo- 
rado, this time at Boulder. The meetings began there 
September 5, and concluded October 10. The num- 
ber of conversions is given at 1,347, and the free-will 
offering 83,496.91. Among the assistants appears for 
the first time ^liss Anna ^lacLaren, the vocalist whose 
work has become such a pronounced feature of the 
Sunday campaigns ; Fred G. Fischer, B. D. Ackley and 
Mrs. Muirhead also appeared, while Colonel Gill is 
reported as the builder of the tabernacle. 



SOME GREAT CAMPAIGNS 139 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, followed Boulder, Colorado. 
The campaign began October 29 and continued through 
to November 21, 1909. From Cedar Rapids Mr. Sun- 
day went to Jopliii, Missouri. At Cedar Rapids the 
number of conversions is given at 2,906 and the free- 
will offering as $7,000. Rev. John Linden assisted 
in these meetings together with Mrs. Muirhead, Miss 
Anna MacLaren, B. D. Ackley and Fred G. Fischer. 
W. G. Young, editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, 
concludes his recapitulation of the campaign with a 
characteristic expression. "We like Billy Sunday." 

Mr. Sunday's first appearance in Ohio, where he 
was subsequently destined to break all previous rec- 
ords, was made at Youngstown. In Ohio Mr. Sun- 
day encountered a different sort of population and 
a different class of people, and the success of 
his efforts was another demonstration of the efff- 
ciency of his system and the uniform favor of 
Providence which has followed all the evangelist's 
campaigns. The Youngstown meetings covered the 
months of January and February, 1910. It opened im- 
mediately following the Christmas holidays which in- 
tervened between the Joplin, Missouri, campaign and 
Mr. Sunday's appearance in Ohio. From Youngstown 
Mr. Sunday went to Bellingham, Washington. Mr. 
E. L. McKelvey, a prominent merchant of Youngs- 
town, reports the conversions as 5,965 and the free- 
will offering as $12,000, a sum considerably in excess 
of any to that time contributed. Mr. Sunday brought 
to the Youngstown campaign the most complete or- 
ganization he had had up to that date. It comprised. 
Rev. John M. Linden, as assistant; Albert P. Gill, as 
organizer; Fred G. Fischer, chorister; B. D. Ackley, 



140 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

pianist; Mrs. Sunday, Miss Frances Miller; Mrs. Rae 
Muirhead; Miss Anna MacLaren; Homer A. Rode- 
heaver, as trombone soloist, and Fred Seibert as cus- 
todian. 

For his next efforts Mr. Sunday returned to 
Pennsylvania holding meetings at New Castle. There 
his campaign opened September i8, 19 lo and con- 
tinued through October 31. Pennsylvania responded 
even better than Ohio had done up to that time, show- 
ing 6,683 conversions and $13,098 free-will oft"ering. 
according to the Herald of that city. Rev. Mr. Honey- 
well, reappears as an assistant ; Mr. Rodeheaver had 
become chorister, and other helpers included Mrs. 
Muirhead and Mr. Ackley. 

Returning to the West the forces were reaug- 
mented for the campaign in Waterloo, Iowa, which 
began November 7, 1910, and closed December 19. The 
assistants were Homer A. Rodeheaver, choir leader; 
Mrs. Rae Muirhead, for work among women; Miss 
Anna MacLaren, as soloist ; Mr. B. D. Ackley, pianist ; 
Miss Frances Miller, as Bible teacher ; A. P. Gill, as 
architect; Fred Seibert, as custodian of the tabernacle; 
and Rev. I. E. Honeywell, as assistant evangelist. Ed- 
gar W. Cooley, of the Waterloo Reporter, is authority 
for the statistics of the meetings in his city. 

Returning from Waterloo to Ohio Mr. Sunday 
took up a series of campaigns which practically cov- 
ered all the larger cities of the state, excepting Cin- 
cinnati and Cleveland. It was his work in Ohio prob- 
ably more than anywhere else that attracted national 
attention to him and brought him invitations from the 
largest cities in the land. 







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CHAPTER XII 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 

Significance o£ Ohio as a pivotal state — The opening at 
Portsmouth — Toledo claims attention — Campaign in 
Erie, Pa. — Phenomenal work in Springfield, Ohio — 
Wichita, Kansas, displays results — Canton, Ohio, 
comes next — Wheeling, W. Va., pleased — Work in 
Fargo, N. D., and Beaver Falls, Pa. — East Liverpool, 
Ohio, visited — McKeesport, Pa., next — On to Co- 
lumbus — Columbus a crucial test — All previous 
records broken — Sensation in near-by towns — What 
the Literary Digest said — Some other great cam- 
paigns. , ^ , ; 

141 



CHAPTER XII 



$INCE the close of the civil war when the State 
of Ohio got in the habit of naming presidents 
and in other ways dominating the affairs of 
state, any considerable activity that has gone on within 
its borders has had a national significance. The met- 
ropolitan papers of the East and West alike have 
paid an unusual attention to the doings of the Buck- 
eye State. The people are accustomed by long train- 
ing to take an active interest in a great variety of 
things, if these are properly presented. 

Without arrogating to itself, however, either an 
established wickedness or yet a peculiar disposition 
toward piety, Ohio presented a logical scene for such 
work on the part of Rev. W. A. Sunday as would 
bring him most fully into the light of national at- 
tention. Moreover the various Ohio campaigns which 
the evangelist conducted beginning with the close of 
1910 came after years of varied experience through 
which he had perfected himself and his organization 
and made himself ready for the greater things to 
which he had been called. 

Up to that time his achievements had been such 
as to challenge comparison with the better known evan- 
gelists of the day. From that time forward he was to 
hear himself ranked with the men whose names have 
rung through the corridors of time, since first the 
Christian evangel was preached. The days of Luther, 
of Wesley, of Whitfield and Savonarola were invokerl 

143 



144 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

for comparison, and as campaign after campaign piled 
up its invincible figures, even these similes seemed 
insufficient. Pentecost itself was the only achieve- 
ment which Mr. Sunday had not surpassed. 

The distinctive Ohio era of Mr. Sunday's work 
practically starts with Portsmouth, where a very sig- 
nificant campaign opened on the last Sunday of 1910 
and continued for six weeks. As a result 5,200 con- 
verts are reported and a free-will offering of $10,554 
was made. The assistants at that time were : Rev. 
Mr. Honeywell, Homer A. Rodeheaver, B. D. Ackley, 
Fred Seibert, Miss Frances Miller and Miss Anna 
MacLaren. 

It was during the Portsmouth campaign that Mr. 
Sunday made his first excursion into Columbus, the 
state capital. There was at the time a vigorous wet 
and dry fight going on in the legislature, and the Ohio 
Anti-Saloon League induced Mr. Sunday to come to 
Columbus for an address, which he delivered in Me- 
morial Hall to a crowd which broke all records for that 
large auditorium. The event made more than a state- 
wide impression, as the talk, delivered with its accus- 
tomed fire and vigor was a startling innovation even 
to a press which had 50 years' experience with the 
vitriolic possibilities of uncounted political meetings. 

This visit to Columbus laid the foundation for 
the call which was finally accepted in 1912. 

From Portsmouth Mr. Sunday went to Lima, 
Ohio, with only a few days of rest intervening. The 
Lima campaign opened February 19, 191 1, and closed 
April 2. Rev. T. H. Campbell who was one of the 
co-operating pastors at the time, reports the conver- 
sions at 5,700 and the free-will ofifering at $11,324. 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 145 

The assistants were Rev. Mr. Honeywell, B. D. Ack- 
ley, Homer A. Rodeheaver, Fred Seibert, Miss Fran- 
ces Miller, Miss Grace Saxe, Miss Anna MacLaren 
and Mrs. Sunday. 

Exactly one week after the conclusion of his ar- 
duous services at Lima Mr. Sunday opened the cam- 
paign at Toledo, Ohio, April 9, and closed it May 21, 
191 1. The figures given by L. J. Beecher, city editor 
of the Toledo Blade, shows that Toledo eclipsed all 
previous records with 7,300 converts and a free-will 
offering of $15,423.58. The assistants were Rev. I. 
E. Honeywell, B. D. Ackley, Homer A. Rodeheaver, 
Albert Gill, Miss Anna Mac Laren, Miss Frances Mil- 
ler and Miss Grace Saxe. 

Mr. Sunday passed over the borders of Ohio for 
his next campaign which was at Erie, Pa., but returned 
immediately thereafter. The Erie campaign opened 
May 28 and continued until July 9, after which the 
evangelist went on his usual summer vacation. The 
conversions are given by the editor of the Herald as 
5,314 and the free will offering $11,565.67. The same 
authority says that the total collection for all pur- 
poses was $21,926.83. The assistants were exactly the 
same as those of the previous campaign. 

Springfield, Ohio, which claimed Mr. Sunday at 
the opening of his work in September, 191 1, while con- 
siderably smaller in size than the scene of his several 
preceding campaigns almost equaled them in results. 
During the six weeks that the meetings were in prog- 
ress 7,000 conversions were reported, and the free-will 
offering amounted to $13,000. James S. Webb, who 
was an interested observer during the entire period, 

10 



146 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

writing after the lapse of two years says : "The good 
work he did here still continues and the live members 
of our churches, Sunday schools and brotherhoods are 
Sunday converts." At Springfield Rev. L. K. Peacock 
had succeeded Rev. Mr. Honeywell as assistant evan- 
gelist. 

Once more Mr. Sunday left Ohio for a brief pe- 
riod, conducting his next campaign at Wichita, Kan- 
sas. The opening date was November 12, and the 
closing was Christmas, 191 1. From Wichita, after the 
holidays Mr. Sunday resumed his Ohio labors at Can- 
ton. Rev. Andrew Brodie of Wichita, reports the con- 
versions as 5,245 and the free-will offering $10,250. 
The assistants were Rev. L. K. Peacock, Mr. and Mrs. 
A. P. Gill, B. D. Ackley, Homer A. Rodeheaver, Miss 
Frances Miller, Miss Anna MacLaren, Miss Grace 
Saxe, Fred Seibert and Mrs. Sunday. 

Rev. Jay W. Somerville, Pastor of St. Paul's M. 
E. Church, of Wichita, Kansas, writes : "The work 
has been abiding and has revolutionized our city. Many 
prominent men were converted and have been a tower 
of strength in the church. Out of this meeting came 
the Layman's Evangelistic teams that have secured 
over 3,000 conversions in 150 towns. Several churches 
have been rejuvenated and the work is still going on." 

A press dispatch from Wichita says : 

Just one year from the organization of the 
first team, 1,913 men and boys have been reported 
as converted as the direct result of the work of 
this aggressive lay ministry. Converts in other 
towns in turn have organized teams and have ex- 
tended the work into other districts, and report 
similar harvests. A letter from a town in Okla- 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 147 

homa expressed gratitude for the visit of one of 
our teams, when 40 converts were secured, and 
the writer added significantly, "We now have a 
team of our own and have visited a number of 
places, and down to date" — a period of about two 
months — "we have 125 converts." 

There are bankers and barbers, capitalists 
and cattlemen, dentists and drivers, editors and 
electricians, lawyers and laborers, merchants and 
mechanics, teachers and traveling men, all bound 
together by one bond of faith in Jesus, one stead- 
fast and consuming purpose to win men into the 
Kingdom. These men walk long distances to hold 
meetings, go in automobiles, or charter Pullman 
cars, as the case may require, each man paying his 
own traveling expenses and hotel bills, giving 
freely of his time, substance, and service for the 
Master. Lately, however, our independent Kansas 
towns, when visited, prefer to pay traveling ex- 
penses and give entertainment. 

Conservative Canton, Ohio, was the next place 
to feel the sting of the activity of a Sunday campaign. 
The meetings opened there December 31, 191 1 and 
ended February 11, 1912. Wm. A. Ernst, of the 
Canton Repository^ says the accepted number of con- 
versions was 5,654. This excluded a large number of 
youngsters, perhaps several thousands. The free-will 
offering amounted to $13,000. The assistants were 
Homer A. Rodeheaver, B. D. Ackley, Miss Frances 
Miller, Miss Anna Mac Laren, Miss Grace Saxe, Rev. 
L. K. Peacock and Fred Seibert. 

Three campaigns intervened before Mr. Sunday 
again returned to Ohio for active work. Wheeling, 
West Virginia, had a series of meetings which started 
February 18 and closed March 31, 1912. Charles E. 



148 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Miner quoting from the press of his city says "8,437 
is the accepted number of conversions, the free-will 
offering was $17,000." This was a new record in 
offerings at that time. The assistants were the same 
as those for the previous meetings with the addition of 
George M. Sunday, a son of the evangelist, partici- 
pating for a period. 

Rev. W. S. Dysinger, pastor of the First English 
Lutheran church of Wheeling, in a public meeting 
two years after the campaign said ''every church in 
the city had derived wonderful results from the cam- 
paign; that practically all of the new members who 
were converted during the revival are still in the 
church and that Wheeling people were benefited mor- 
ally, physically and financially." Rev. Mr. Dysinger 
cited three instances of good Mr. Sunday had accom- 
plished that had recently come to his attention. 

The first, he said, was the case of a huckster 
he had met on the street. "You see that good 
horse and wagon and that wagon load of pro- 
duce?" the fellow said to the minister. "Well, 
that's what Billy Sunday did for me." 

The second was the case of a wife deserter, 
who had been converted and had returned to his 
family to protect and provide for them. Another 
was that of a laborer who had, previous to the 
campaign, been satisfied with living in a little 
shack entirely too small for the needs of his 
family. He "hit the sawdust trail" during the 
Sunday meetings and immediately doubled the size 
of the dwelling. "Billy Sunday and his preach- 
ing made me do it," the fellow told Rev. Mr. 
Dysinger, when the minister asked him what had 
brousfht about the change. 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 149 

The minister said his own, church had re- 
ceived 328 new members as a result of the cam- 
paign, and less than, a dozen had dropped out since. 
He laughingly explained to the audience he wished 
to lay particular emphasis on the fact he is the 
pastor of a Lutheran church. 

"If the people don't stick," the minister said 
in conclusion, "don't blame Billy Sunday. It isn't 
his fault. Rather you should lay it at the door of 
the ministers and the people." 

Making another of his long jumps Mr. Sunday 
next directed his energies to the spiritual rejuvenation 
of Fargo, North Dakota, a community, which accord- 
ing to all published reports, stood in need of such at- 
tention. Ralph R. Wolf, secretary of the Y. M. C. A., 
defines the campaign as starting Ma^rch 7 and conclud- 
ing May 12, 19 1 2, with conversions numbering 3,159, 
and a free-will offering of $5,026. The same corps 
of assistants that had been so successful in Wheeling 
participated in the North Dakota work. 

Beaver Falls, Pa., was the last place that meetings 
were held prior to the summer vacation of 1912. The 
Beaver Falls meetings according to Rev. Geo. B. Laird, 
opened May 16, and closed June 24, 1912. The con- 
versions were over 4,229 and the free-will offering was 
$10,357.56. Rev. L. K. Peacock, Homer A. Rode- 
heaver, B. D. Ackley, Mr. and Mrs. Gill, Fred Sei- 
bert, Miss Grace Saxe, Miss Anna Mac Laren, Miss 
Frances Miller and Mrs. Sunday added their energies 
to this campaign. 

F. S. Reader, editor of the Beaver Valley News, 
which was within the zone of the Sunday influence 
writes, "Lie was a great blessing to our valley." 



150 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

East Liverpool, Ohio, followed the summer vaca- 
tion. The meetings opened September 15 and closed 
October 27, 1912, according to C. V. Talbot, manag- 
ing editor of the Morning Tribune. He gives the con- 
versions as 6,354 and the free-will offering as $12,600. 
The assistants were, B. D. Ackley, Miss Grace Saxe, 
Prof. Hugh Laughlin, who took the place of Homer 
A. Rodeheaver who was taken ill at East Liverpool, 
Miss Anna Mac Laren, Fred Seibert, "Uncle Jimmy" 
Johnson and Mrs. Sunday. Mr. Talbot concludes 
''Billy Sunday is worthy of every boost." 

McKeesport, Pa., practically a suburb of Pitts- 
burg, was the scene of the second campaign of the 
fall of 1912. The work started there November 3 
and continued for six weeks, during which time 10,- 
022 converts were made and a free-will offering of 
$13,438 was secured. The assistants were the same 
as those who co-operated at East Liverpool. 

From McKeesport with only a few intervening 
days of rest spent at his home in Winona Lake, Mr. 
Sunday and his party came to Columbus, Ohio. 

Columbus, because of the peculiar cosmopolitan 
nature of its inhabitants and the extraordinary im- 
portance attached to politics in that city at all times 
of the year, and the further fact that the legislature 
was in session, and that the inauguration of the gov- 
ernor would take place during the period of the Sun- 
day campaign, led to repeated predictions, both pub- 
lically and privately expressed, that the usual results 
attending Mr. Sunday's efforts would not be forthcom- 
ing as they had been in the past. Seven weeks were 
destined to disapprove every one of these assertions 
and to establish new high marks in all the lines of his 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 151 

efforts, most of which have not at this writing (No- 
vember 1913) been equaled. 

Joe Speice, the architect, who had taken the place 
of Colonel Gill as advance man, builded for Columbus 
the largest tabernacle ever erected for Mr. Sunday, 
and the glory of the work which he carries on. Includ- 
ing the choir loft which seated over 1,200 people the 
auditorium had a capacity of 12,000 seats, and this 
with few exceptions was tested at every one of the 93 
meetings, so that at the conclusion it was estimated 
that almost 1,000,000 persons had sat under the spell 
of this wonderful man's preaching. 

The total number of converts was 18,333, ^^ whom 
2,189 came forward on the last day, thus eclipsing all 
evangelical records of modern times. 

Mr. Sunday's offering was $21,000; the amount 
collected for current expenses was $19,187.81 ; col- 
lected for charity $2,381.55; special offering for the 
women in the Sunday party $1,115.55; grand total of 
moneys collected during the campaign $44,432.68. 

The nursery, which was in a building adjacent to 
the tabernacle, cared for 1,884 babies during the meet- 
mgs. A "check" was issued to the mother of each 
baby to avoid confusion. 

The revival opened December 29, 1912 and closed 
February 16, 19 13. 

It was during the Columbus campaign that Mr. 
Sunday was compelled, somewhat against his will, to 
repeat a number of his sermons, because often the 
12,000 who crowded the tabernacle was only a portion 
of the throng which demanded to hear certain of his 
well known sermons. 



152 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Columbus also broke all records for the "women 
only" meeting, Mr. Sunday being compelled to give 
the same discourse three times in the same day, a tour 
de force of such magnitude that it can be appreciated 
only by those who have heard the evangelist through 
one of his large and exciting discourses. 

The press of Columbus estimated that on that day 
40,000 women heard Mr. Sunday. They began to 
seek admission as early as 5 o'clock in the morning; 
doors were opened for the first meeting at 10:30 and 
closed at 11, and at 11:45 the first sermon was 
preached, concluding at i :50. The second sermon 
followed immediately and the third was given in the 
evening. 

To fully appreciate the significance of these 
figures it is necessary to add that during all the morn- 
ing hours a cold drizzling rain was falling. The ex- 
citement on the outside so nearly approached a riot 
that police reserves were called out to prevent acci- 
dents. 

The women finally "rushed" the police line and 
literally battered down a large door to gain admit- 
tance. The place was packed almost to suffocation — 
several fainting. Even the pulpit platform was 
crowded with women, who sat on the edge. 

On several nights Mr. Sunday was compelled to 
stop his sermons temporarily on account of noise by 
people who had climbed to the roof to peer through 
the ventilators. 

Columbus served to show the wide range of in- 
fluence a Sunday campaign has in the surrounding 
community. The following episode detailed by the 
Columbus Citizen is typical : 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 153 

Fire and church bells rang, whistles blew, 
shops shut down, stores and schools closed and 
the people turned out en masse at Dunkirk — 70 
miles north of Columbus, on the T. & O. C. — to 
greet Billy Sundaiy Tuesday afternoon when he 
changed trains on his way here from Winona Lake. 

An automobile met him at the station and 
whirled him to the biggest church in. the town. It 
was packed to capacity when he arrived. He threw 
ofif his hat and fur overcoat and plunged at once into 
a fiery sermon. Almost before he knew it he had 
preached 45 minutes. He gave a call for converts 
and 12 "hit the trail" — not on saw dust, but on 
Brussels carpet in the church. 

When the time drew near for his train, Billy 
hurried from the church, but not until he had 
shaken hands with half the people of Dunkirk. "If 
I go home next Sunday night I'll stop over here 
again next Tuesday, and preach for you," Billy 
told them. Then they cheered him. A big crowd 
followed his auto to the depot, where they waved 
good-bye as the train pulled away for Columbus. 

"You people don't appreciate half what the 
newspapers are doing to spread the Gospel in this 
campaign," said Mr. Sunday Tuesday night, at the 
tabernacle in telling of his Dunkirk meeting. "For 
100 miles in every direction from Columbus they're 
reading of these wonderful meetings and are be- 
ing aroused." 

The ministers of Dunkirk, by long distance 
phone had arranged for the meeting with Sunday 
before he left Winona Lake, Tuesday morning. 
"I'll stop anywhere between trains to preach God's 
word and save souls," said Billy to his tabernacle 
audience. 

On another occasion to gratify the beautiful little 
city of Marysville, 30 miles from Columbus, Mr. 
Sunday denied himself his usual morning's rest, and 



154 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

by use of a special train, in each direction, was able 
to reach the place, preach to 3,000 people who were 
packed in the largest building, which the town pos- 
sesses (a factory), and return to Columbus in time 
for his afternoon service. 

At the conclusion of the campaign, in which three 
meetings occupied the entire day from 9 130 in the 
morning until almost 11 in the evening the Ohio State 
Journal, and afterwards the Literary Digest quoting 
it, said: 

Eclipsing all previous evangelistic records in 
point of numbers of converts and in funds raised 
by free-will offering for the exclusive use of the 
revivalist, Rev. Billy Sunday wound up his seven 
weeks' campaign in Columbus yesterday with five 
rousing meetings, in which 2,231 people hit the 
sawdust trail and $20,795 poured into the hands 
of the tellers in checks, greenbacks, gold and 
ghttering piles of small change. 

Scenes of the greatest dramatic moment 
marked the closing hours of the campaign at the 
huge tabernacle, which for a stretch of seven weeks 
had been jammed with throngs of earnest listeners. 

Thunders of : 

"God be with you till we meet again 

Keep love's banner floating o'er you. 

Smite death's threatening wave before you," 

died away among the rafters of the Billy Sunday 
tabernacle; one by one the lights went out, one by 
one farewells were said, the evangelist and his 
wife, and then the helpers departed. 

But many lingered, loath to see the end of 
the day whose six monster meetings including one 
at the penitentiary, were attended by 40,000 per- 
sons who listened to the Preached Word ; when 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 155 

more than 2,000 confessed conversion and nearly 
t-21,000 was collected, and which brought to a close 
the seven weeks campaign that had shaken Co- 
lumbus as nothing religious ever had shaken it; 
which brought 18,000 persons to make personal and 
public confession of faith in Jesus Christ, and 
which gave to Columbus last evening, every record 
in modern evangelism. 

Everyone was tired, everyone was happy, 
everyone was satisfied. So pleased were those in 
attendance at one meeting yesterday, that a resolu- 
tion asking Rev. Mr. Sunday to return to Co- 
lumbus was adopted with a cheer. 

For more than seven weeks hundreds of busi- 
ness men had neglected their private affairs, for 
an equal period social engagements were dis- 
regarded or sidetracked; for that length of time 
60 churches had closed their doors, their pastors 
had devoted the bulk of their time to advancing 
the work of campaign and during all those days, 
Rev. Billy Sunday, the baseball evangelist, had 
talked and prayed, sweated and pranced about the 
platform, besought and entreated the sinners, flayed 
with scathing invectives every sort of wickedness 
and endeared himself personally to multitudes who 
either had been openl}^, or covertly, antagonistic. 
Under the spell of this oratory and the persuasive 
influence of his co-workers, all manner of men were 
made to take a new view of life. City and county 
officials, saloonkeepers and professors, society 
women and shop girls, school children and avowed 
agnostics, stood up and said "I publicly accept Jesus 
Christ as my personal Savior." 

There were held 95 tabernacle meetings, at all 
but two of which Mr. Sunday spoke. At these 
meetings there were present between 750,000 and 
one million people. The total number of cards 
signed was 18,333 greater than any number ever 
secured in this country in a like period of time by 



156 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Rev, Mr. Sunday, or, it is said, by any other 
evangelist. 

The assistants were the same with the addition 
of Rev. and ]\Irs. Wm. Asher and Wm. Collison. 

"The interest of the newspapers of the city 
throughout the campaign was intense. On the final 
Sunday, for instance. The CohimhusDispatcJi moved 
its entire news gathering staff of 20 men to the taber- 
nacle. A "city news room" was established in the 
Railway Y. ]\L C. A. adjoining, in charge of Manag- 
ing Editor Johnson and City Editor Rieker. The 
staff reporters were assigned to duty in different parts 
of the tabernacle, in the temporary bank in the base- 
ment, in the crowds that thronged the outside, etc. 
They worked throughout the day and night and at 
daylight Monday issued an "extra" giving a complete 
history of the wonderful day — several pages in all. 
They sold by the thousands, like the traditional "hot 
cakes." 

Immediately following Columbus, ]\Ir. Sunday 
opened a series of meetings at ^^'ilkes-Barre, Pa., the 
farthest East of any district in which he had ever 
worked. The campaign opened on Washington's 
Birthday — February 22 — 191 3. Rev. W. M. Randies, 
pastor of the Bethesda Congregational church, gives 
the number of converts as 16,548, and the free-will 
offering as $23,527.66. In only this one respect did 
the Wilkes-Barre campaign exceed that of Columbus 
and the amount remains at the present time the record 
sum raised at the conclusion of any one series of 
meetings. Rev. ^Iv. Randies in commenting on the 
number of conversions says : 



SOME GREATER CAMPAIGNS 157 

With regard to the number of converts, this 
needs to be said, quite a number were members 
going forward to take others forward, some were 
members that by this expressed a desire to reach 
"higher ground" or to leave out of their lives 
things that they had been led to see were wrong. 
Some pastors report a number of duplications, some 
of the duplicate cards bearing different dates (I 
think this came thru new converts taking others 
forward a little later and thus being counted twice.) 
On the other hand this does not count the large 
number converted in the weeks following the meet- 
ing. As an example my church received 184 cards, 
yet to date we have added 240 to full communion, 
almost all of which can be said to have been the 
result of the meeting. I think that a very con- 
servative estimate would be that 15,000 were added 
to the churches of the Wyoming Valley, 

South Bend, Indiana, concluded the range of Mr. 
Sunday's activities prior to the summer rest for 1913. 
The meetings there opened April 27 and concluded 
June 15. The accepted number of converts 16,398 
and the free-will offering $11,200. The assistants 
were the same as those who participated in Columbus, 
excepting Mr. Collison. 

Wilbur R. Armstrong of the South Bend Tribune, 
who observed the entire campaign, makes the follow- 
ing comment: 

If the Creator had seen fit to make 50 Billy 
Sundays simultaneously instead of but one, I am 
firmly of the opinion that the army of Christianity 
would shortly become the most formidable or- 
ganization the world has ever known. That number 
of evangelists of the Billy Sunday type with his 
organization behind them could revolutionize the 



158 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

world big as it is. The baseball evangelist is un- 
doubtedly the most remarkable preacher of his age 
. and the whole truth in regard to the effective work 
he is doing never has, and probably never will be 
known. Much of the benefits of a Sunday cam- 
paign are buried in the young boy, the young girl, 
the home, society and business and the general 
public will never be able to secure all the facts — 
and it is not necessary. 

Bill}' Sunday undoubtedly has as many true 
friends and as many bitter enemies as any man in 
America today. His friends know him largely 
through his unusual work, and his enemies know 
him as a destroyer of their particular business or 
an enemy of their particular acts, or they are totally 
ignorant of the man. Some of his most bitter op- 
ponents in South Bend would not have gone near 
one of his meetings for $5,000, much as they love 
gold. It made them purple in the face if they were 
so much as invited to his tabernacle, so afraid 
were they that they might change their opinion of 
him. The best estimate of the baseball evangelist I 
have ever heard was made by Joseph D. Oliver, 
Indiana's plow magnate. He said : "There is 
nothing better in men than Billy Sunday himself, 
and few things worse than his imitators." 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 

All evangelists misunderstood — Some historic examples 
— Opposition of Dr. Washington Gladden — Origin 
of the difficulty — Dr. Gladden quoted in The Congre- 
gationalist — Higher criticism considered — Dissen- 
tion produces profound sensation — Resolutions of 
the Evangelical Association — Resume of the Colum- 
bus conflict — Tempermental differences of Mr. Sun- 
day and Dr. Gladden — Wisdom of silence. 

159 



CHAPTER XIII 



UNIFORMLY it has been the fate of great men 
to be misunderstood. The lowly Nazarene as 
He walked by the waters of Galilee or preached 
on the mountain sides was no exception. History be- 
fore His time had recorded others only slightly less 
unfortunate. Those who have followed in His foot- 
steps with more or less vigor and courage have met 
with the same misapprehension. 

There is a saying that men are known by the 
caliber of the opposition they meet. Armies are not 
put in the field to crush a handful of riotous school 
boys. The giant forces of intellect do not concern 
themselves seriously with the vagaries of disordered 
minds which crop out in various freak sects and isms. 

Charles G. Phinney the evangelist who is so often 
quoted and praised by Rev. W. A. Sunday, was 
severely criticised by the famous Dr. Beecher and 
others because of the methods he employed. John 
Wesley from 1739 to the close of life was persecuted 
and annoyed ; not alone by the magistrates, but by the 
clergymen of his country, and these differences ex- 
tended into his own family and threatened the natural 
ties which bound him to his brother Charles. George 
Whitfield could not agree with his great friend Wes- 
ley, and papers and tracts were continually published 
against him although he conducted wonderfully suc- 
cessful evangelical campaigns both in England and 
America. The friendship which existed between 

11 161 



162 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Whitfield and John Wesley was at one time actually 
broken and for a long time seriously impaired by dif- 
ferences of opinion which they held upon church 
government. 

It is not strange therefore that W. A. Sunday 
should come in agitated conflict with some of the 
leaders in church work everywhere he goes. It re- 
mained, however, for episodes growing out of the 
campaign in Columbus to attract international atten- 
tion to develop what has come to be known as the 
Gladden-Sunday controversy. This controversy was 
taken up, not only in the columns of the church 
papers, chief of which was the Congregationalist, but 
was caught up by the secular press everywhere and 
given extraordinary space and attention. 

Dr. Gladden is probably the greatest church au- 
thority and the most powerful intellect who ever set 
himself in opposition to Mr. Sunday and his works. 
A dispassionate survey of the results is almost im- 
possible at the present time (November 1913). Cer- 
tain features that are easily apparent, point to a divided 
result. One thing conclusively established by the con- 
troversy was the tremendous loyalty of those who 
had been most intimately associated with Mr. Sunday 
in his several campaigns. Opposite to this was the 
unquestioned fact that Dr. Gladden's attitude and 
reasoning withheld from Mr. Sunday a call to In- 
dianapolis and possibly other cities. ]\Iore serious 
than anything else, however, was the strife and dissen- 
sion which the controversy provoked among the less 
intellectual and more bitterly partisan of church work- 
ers on either side. Both parties to the disagreement, 
so far as they were individually concerned, let the 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 163 

matter drop when their side had been given to the 
pubHc. 

Mr. Sunday himself never took part in the dis- 
cussion. Whatever was said in his behalf was made 
public by friends who may, or may not, have been 
fully authorized in the premises. At no time did Mr. 
Sunday in any of his public addresses mention Dr. 
Gladden by name, and such publications as appeared 
coupling the two names were due to unauthorized re- 
pioduction of essentially personal conversation. 

On the other hand. Dr. Gladden who had opposed 
the coming of Mr. Sunday to Columbus maintained 
the strictest silence after this had been determined 
upon. At no time during the Columbus campaign did 
he do or say anything which could be construed as 
opposition, unless it was the maintaining of his reg- 
ular Sunday services. His first public utterance ap- 
peared in the issue of the Congregationalist May 29, 
more than three months following the close of the 
Sunday campaign in Columbus. Because of Dr. Glad- 
den's international prominence in the Congregation- 
alist fold and in the educational and religious world 
generally this article provoked the most wide-spread 
discussion. 

Dr. Gladden's article appeared in response to hun- 
dreds of requests poured in upon him from all sources 
where a Sunday campaign was contemplated. The 
letters came from people who differed from the evan- 
gelist in his methods. Leaving out of account for the 
moment the differences in personality, which in them- 
selves would have made any co-operation between 
these two men impossible, it is of importance to know 
first Dr. Gladden's attitude on some of the doctrines 



164 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

which Mr. Sunday preaches. In his paper entitled 
''The Trouble About Billy Sunday", published May 
29, 1913, in the Congregationalist, Dr. Gladden says : 



The intolerance and violence which are the 
native breath of Mr. Sunday furnish the first and 
strongest reason for refusing to work with him. 
In his first or second day in Columbus Mr. Sunday 
said, "The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood 
of Man is the worst rot that ever was dug out of 
hell, and every minister who preaches it is a liar." 
I could hardly believe my eyes when I read it, but 
I made very sure that he had said it, and the same 
thing was said in substance over and over. I do 
not wish to pass judgment on the ministers who 
listened, without protest, to that; I know what 
their excuses were ; but I could not, without for- 
feiting my self-respect, have attended those services 
until, those words had been withdrawn and humbly 
apologized for. 

Such language was repeated every day. Every 
man whose opinions differ from those of Mr. Sun- 
day is a liar; every day he mounts the judgment 
seat of the universe and sends men by scores to the 
right hand and to the left — mostly to the left. 
Statistics — of a sort — were kept of the number of 
"conversion" ; but of the number of those sent 
to hell, by name, no record, I believe, was made. 
It is a great omission; for that is a large part of 
the business. 

All evolutionists are consigned to hell. Mr. 
Sunday names one by one, those whom he supposes 
to be evolutionists, and with a dramatic gesture 
flings each of them into perdition. "There goes 
old Darwin ! He's in hell sure !" And the en- 
raptured audience yells its applause, as one evolu- 
tionist after another is dropped into the fiery pit. 
A staid Methodist preacher, who watched this per- 
formance, said afterwards, *T would never have be- 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 165 

lieved, if I had not seen it, that an audience of 
civilized Americans could show such a spirit as 
that." The scene at a Spanish bull fight is really, 
when you think of it it, less horrible. 

It is well known to church workers that Dr. Glad- 
den is a consistent believer in the theory of evolution 
as it applies to all life, including the spiritual life, and 
both his writings and his preaching make this clear. 
This sufficiently explains his objection to the doctrine 
which Mr. Sunday preaches. 

Another thing to which Dr. Gladden objects is 
what he calls the commercial feature of the Sunday 
campaigns. Concerning this phase the article above 
quoted goes on to say : 

The commercial feature of this "evangelism" 
is also a serious matter. It is far truer today than 
when Paul said it, that the love of money is the 
root of all kinds of evil ; and the warning of 
Jesus, "Take heed and beware of covetousness," is 
counsel which was never before so pertinent. It is 
the one vice of which a Christian teacher should 
never be suspected. Mr. Sunday sets all that counsel 
at defiance. It is notorious that he is making him- 
self rich in this business of evangelism. At a con- 
ference of evangelists held in Chicago last summer 
one of the younger men told of counsel which had 
been given him as to methods of work by ''one of 
the leading evangelists." Among other things this 
leading evangelist had said to him, "I've got all 
those other fellows skinned a mile in the free-will 
offering." The name of this leading evangelist was 
not given. Dr. Chapman thinks it should have been, 
and so do I. Only one man could have truthfully 
said it. 

Mr. Sunday takes out of every considerable 
city which he visits, for an eight weeks' service, 



y 



166 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

money enough to pay the average Congregational 
minister's salary for twenty years ; and his year's 
accumulation would support one hundred foreign 
missionaries. He is not reticent about this ; he 
preaches about it frequently and defiantly; he in- 
sists that it is nobody's business how much money 
he makes or what he does with it. 

Returning to the Sunday doctrines, Dr. Gladden 
sums them up in the following paragraph : 

As for the doctrine taught, it is the most hope- 
less form of mediaeval substitutionism. Salvation 
is a matter of contract; hell is a literal pit of fire 
and brimstone ; the Bible is verbally infallible ; 
every man who teaches the Higher Criticism is a 
liar. Any minister who disputes any of Mr. Sun- 
day's dogmas is leading his people to hell; Edward 
Everett Hale is undoubtedly in hell. Adventism of 
the most crass variety is unflinchingly proclaimed; 
the world is going to hell as fast as it can ; all talk 
about improving social conditions is rot. 

Since Dr. Gladden is admittedly one of the 
leaders in the Higher Criticism and was for many 
years a personal friend of Edward Everett Hale his 
sense of resentment toward what he understood Mr. 
Sunday's attitude to be is not hard to understand. 

Concerning the Gladden article which it printed, 
the Congregationalist said editorialy, in the same is- 
sue: 

Dr. Gladden's powerful arraignment of Mr. 
Sunday will undoubtedly convince many that he is 
a man whose methods and spirit disqualify him 
for effective Christian service. Others will con- 
tinue to feel perplexed and almost baffled in their 
endeavor fairly to appraise him and his work. We 
have never thought of him, for an instant, as one 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 167 

to whom we could point as a model for young 
people. He is far from being the best illustration 
of the graces and virtues Christianity is supposed 
to engender when given a fair chance in the human 
heart. What we have said and what we are dis- 
posed to reiterate is, that judging by what he has 
done throughout the Western country, he has ap- 
parently been the means of bringing into the Chris- 
tian life multitudes who, humanly speaking, would 
never have been converted. As one of his own 
converts wrote us the other day, "The more I hear 
and see of Mr. Sunday the more I wonder at the 
instruments God uses for accomplishing his pur- 
poses." Ultimately we are all brought to one or 
the other conclusion. Either Mr. Sunday is a harm- 
ful and devastating force whose influence blights 
every spot it touches, or else, despite his glaring 
faults, he is a man whom God, for reasons which 
we cannot explain, sees fit to use for bringing many 
persons into obedience to Jesus Christ. 

God does not lodge all his gifts in one man. 
Some men in the pastorate repel those whom their 
successors win. Mr. Bruce Barton, in the article 
which started this discussion, rightly said that the 
question, of Mr. Sunday is wrapped in the larger 
question of the wisdom of all kinds of special 
evangelistic effort. Many a good movement in the 
Kingdom is followed by reaction and disppoint- 
ment. Varied indeed are the modern manifesta- 
tions of religion and some of its outstanding ex- 
ponents sometimes not only offend our tastes, but 
cross our most cherished convictions. We have 
sought in our recent exploitation of Mr. Sunday 
chiefly to fulfill our function as a religious news- 
paper confronted with a remarkable phenomenon 
in the field of current religious life rather than 
to attack or defend him. Either of these courses 
might be easier than to try and weigh the evidence 
concerning him and his methods and to reach a 
conclusion just to him and all the issue involved. 



168 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

These publications, coming almost without warn- 
ing, produced the most profound sensation in the news 
papers in the cj.ties where ^Ir. Sunday had conducted 
a campaign and where Congregationalists composed 
any considerable portion of the population. Mr. Sun- 
day declined to make any reply and even said to friends 
that he had never read the arraignment, knowing its 
contents only by hearsay. His enthusiastic support- 
ers, however, manifested no such control of their 
tongues or their emotions. The ministers conference, 
of which Dr. Gladden was a member, was sadly di- 
vided. The Evangelical Association under the aus- 
pices of which., the Columbus campaign had been con- 
ducted printed and had distributed a pamphlet giving 
its side of the argument. 

The co-operating pastors of the churches in Co- 
lumbus adopted the following series of resolution : 

As^o-operating pastors in the recent evan- 
geIisti€^*?wTipaign held in Columbus, Ohio, by the 
Rev. Wiliiam A. Sunday, we hereby deprecate the 
unchTisfian spirit prompting the recent published 
attack upon Mr. Sunday and his methods of work, 
by a local pastor who bitterly opposed his coming 
to our city and who was NOT r^KESENT at a 
single service during the campaign. 

We protest against his article as being a mis- 
representation of the facts and fruits of the cam- 
paign, and especially would we repudiate the state- 
ment that Mr. Sunday's doctrine was "the most 
hopeless form of medieval substitutionism; salva- 
tion a matter of contract ; hell a literal pit of fire 
and brimstone ; the Bible verbally infallible." 

Most emphatically do we declare against the 
following statement : 'The evils of the movement 
are, the lowering of men's sentiments of reverence, 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 169 

the blunting of their finer sensibilities, the stimulat- 
ing of their uncharitableness and censoriousness, the 
commercializing of their ideas of Christian service 
and reward, the blinding of their intellects by an 
immoral theology." 

We believe in Mr. Sunday as a man of God, 
chosen to do what no man in this generation has 
been able to accomplish, in elucidating the funda- 
mentals of religion as set forth by Jesus Christ the 
Son of God. 

We believe the Columbus campaign, in far- 
reaching and lasting results, is the most successful 
in every way of any in modern times. 

Dr. Gladden is a man of wonderful personality, 
beloved by all who know him. His acquaintance is 
not so readily made as that of the evangelist, but is 
prized by every man who enjoys it. His friends and 
supporters are as loyal as those who follow any man 
living. Yet, a number of them found it convenient 
to be present at several of the Simday meetings, and, 
like most people who took the trouble, were disabused 
of the prejudice which they had entertained. 

In the 30 odd years of his residence in Columbus, 
Dr. Gladden, has contributed a service to the city 
which is immeasurable ; not appreciated by some, be- 
cause they are by nature not sufficiently endowed to 
participate in it. No matter how successfully any 
evangelist might riddle evolution and the evolutionists, 
to his own satisfaction, there are still hundreds of in- 
telligent men and women who are persuaded of the 
general truth of that theory and who are loath to sur- 
render their belief in the Bible and their faith in God. 
To such number, peculiarly large in a university town, 
Dr. Gladden has performed an unspeakable service. 



170 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

On the other hand, it is vain to deny that Rev. 
Mr. Sunday in the course of seven weeks accom- 
pHshed in Columbus some things which no one church, 
or all the churches together, had been able to bring 
about. For this it is possible to leave out of consid- 
eration the large number of accessions due to dis- 
puted conversions ; one of the debated points between 
the two leaders. 

The strong sentiment aroused by Rev. Mr. Sun- 
day resulted in the closing of all up-town retail stores 
on Saturday night. The evangelist contended that 
Saturday night stores operated against Sunday morn- 
ing church attendance. This was brought about by the 
fact that a prominent merchant was an officer of the 
evangelical association and the very plain speaking of 
the evangelist made it apparent to him that he was not 
according his help the same privileges which he en- 
joyed. His example aided and abetted by public sen- 
timent, brought about the closing of practically every 
large store in Columbus three hours earlier on Satur- 
day night than was their practice previously. This 
would seem like civic righteousness. 

Other items, which were not considered of public 
interest, have come under personal observation, the 
direct result of Rev. Air. Sunday's work in Columbus. 
A number of business men voluntarily increased the 
wages of their help, particularly the women, because 
of the vigorous utterances of the evangelist on the sub- 
ject of a living wage. 

In a larger way more rigid law enforcements re- 
sulted from the fact that the chief of police became a 
follower of the evangelist. Saloons and drinking 
places freely admit a very considerable decrease in 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 171 

business, not only during the campaign, but since its 
conclusion. 

Dr. Gladden and Mr. Sunday are fundamentally 
different. Each is sincere in his convictions that the 
dift'erences of belief hold them apart. Disinterested 
observers, however, incline to the opinion that it is 
temperament rather than theology that separates them. 

While a man of deep and tender emotions, Dr. 
Gladden is essentially intellectual. 

While a man of very considerable intellectual at- 
tainments, Rev. Mr. Sunday is essentially emotional. 
He has the advantage in this, that more people are 
controlled, habitually, through the emotions than 
through the mind, therfore, he has the lead in point of 
supporters. 

Dr. Gladden has said that it is too early to judge 
definitely the result of Rev. Mr. Sunday's work. Yet, 
this must be apparent; either good can come of evil, 
which is a conclusion most men are loath to accept; 
or else, that from which good proceeds must be itself 
worthy. From this deduction it seems impossible to 
escape. 

No one regrets that Rev. Mr. Sunday came to 
Columbus. 

No one regrets that Dr. Gladden continues to re- 
side in Columbus, where he is generally esteemed the 
first citizen of the city. 

The only regrettable thing is that two wonderful 
forces moving through a very fertile field could not 
continue their beneficial operations without coming in 
to conflict, each destroying some portion of the good 
the other has done. 



172 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

The echoes of the conflict continued throughout 
the columns of the pubhc press for many weeks, but 
the last considerable announcement was in the nature 
of a letter from the pen of Dr. Gladden printed in the 
Columbus Evening Dispatch^ and subsequently repro- 
duced in the Co7tgregationalist. 

In this letter Dr. Gladden said : 

It has been said a great many times that I 
had no right to oppose Mr. Sunday, because I had 
never heard him; that my judgment had been 
founded on hearsay. This is simply silly. I have 
never been in a house of prostitution or a gambling 
den, but I have a right to protest against them. 
With respect to a public teacher whose works are 
known and read of all men, every man has a right 
to judge. Mr. Sunday's sermons, in stenographic 
reports, authorized by himself, have been printed 
over and over in hundreds of newspapers. He 
preaches the same sermons everywhere. He uses 
the same languages everywhere. The bits of choice 
English picked out and printed in the daily press 
are substantially the same everywhere. Mr. Sunday 
has never repudiated them; on the contrary he 
keeps repeating them. 

To say that one who has not taken pains to 
inform himself with respect to this teaching has no 
right to express an opinion of Mr. Sunday as a 
teacher is simply fatuous. To a public teacher, 
surely, the judgment of Jesus must be applied, "By 
thy words thou shalt be justified and by thv words 
thou shalt be condemned." I wonder if these 
brethren have never expressed an adverse judgment 
respecting teachers whom they have never heard. I 
doubt if any of them ever heard Thomas Paine, or 
Robert Ingersoll, or Mary Baker Eddy or the Pope; 
and yet I am sure that they would not hesitate to 
express their opinion concerning their teachings. 



THE GLADDEN-SUNDAY CONTROVERSY 173 

Some of my critics accuse me of the same in- 
tolerance as that of which I complain in Mr. Sun- 
day. I think that my neighbors know that I am 
not intolerant. I have never, in my thirty years 
in Columbus, called in question, any man's right to 
speak his mind. I have never engaged in any con- 
troversy on. religious subjects. I have never re- 
plied to criticisms on my own teaching. But when 
a man comes into town and spends seven weeks in 
preaching and teaching and practicing intolerance, 
it seems to be necessary to raise a voice against it. 
There is just one thing that a tolerant mind can- 
not tolerate, and that is intolerance. That ought 
to be plain without a diagram. But if one is needed, 
here it is : 

"For I am in love with love, 
And the sole thing I hate is hate; 
For hate is the unpardonable sin. 
And love is the Holy Ghost within." 

Gradually the sober minded men of the church 
reaHzed that no possible good could come of the con- 
tinued argument. There v^as none who could directly 
refute the plain statements made by Dr. Gladden. On 
the other hand they were confronted with the fact of 
largely increased church membership, with church ac- 
tivity on the part of men and women, but particularly 
men, who never had given time or thought to anything 
concerning the church or the things for which the 
church stands. Through the efforts of these lay-mem- 
bers conversions continued to be made and accessions 
were made to church membership in a manner that was 
highly gratifying to the leading laborers in the Vine- 
yard. 

With the passing of weeks and months by tacit 
consent the Gladden- Sunday controversy became a 



174 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

closed incident. The famous First Congregational 
Church of Columbus went on to bigger and finer things 
under the administration of Dr. Gladden, while the 
co-operating churches which participated in the Sun- 
day campaign enjoyed the fruits of activity and spirit- 
ual blessings which they never had known before. 
The differences which held the two great men apart 
remain unsettled. 



CHAPTER XIV 



"MA" 



Value of her advice — Traveling and maintaining a home 
at the same time — A woman's view of the woman — 
Husband amenable to wife — The way Mrs. Sunday's 
days are crowded — The power of Nell — The silver 
wedding anniversary — How the twain are one. 

175 




Orr-Kicjcr Studi 

BiLi/s Favorite Picture of "Ma." 



CHAPTER XIV 



no account of the career and achievements of Rev. 
W. A. Sunday would be complete or accurate 
unless it made full recognition of the part Mrs. 
Sunday has had in both. So nearly coincidental are 
the Christian ministry and the married life of Mr. 
Sunday that a separation of the two is almost impos- 
sible. It is doubtful if either of the couple realize 
the amount the other has contributed to the success of 
the work. 

Mr. Sunday was married about a year after his 
conversion, but before he began actual evangelical 
work. Mrs. Sunday, therefore, started married life, 
as the wife of a base ball player. This involved a cer- 
tain amount of travel and a variety of associations 
vastly different from those which were to become her 
everyday experience. 

To thousands and thousands who have sat be- 
neath the spell of Mr. Sunday's voice, Mrs. Sunday is 
affectionately known as "Ma." Nothing could be more 
effective and at the same time a finer compliment to 
the woman than the manner in which Mr. Sunday is 
wont to introduce her to his audience. After he has 
presented the assistants, and the choir leader, and the 
soloists, and the instrumentalist, he will usually end 
by that terse phase ''and this is Ma." 

It means everything to the evangelist. In public 
and in private he is generous in his acknowledgment 
of the important part she plays in all his work. Essen- 
12 177 



178 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

tially she is his business manager, practically she is 
the buffer which comes between the preacher and the 
thousand and one little trials of life which do so much 
to disturb the even tenor of existence. At home and 
abroad Mr. Sunday remains the impetuous sweetheart 
which he Vv^as in his base ball days. In a recent cam- 
paign he paid this tribute to Mrs. Sunday: 

I've never yet gone contrary to Mrs. Sun- 
day's advice that I haven't found myself up against 
it. Nell wouldn't take first prize at a beauty show, 
but she's got more good horse sense than any 
woman I ever saw in my life. And I think she's 
the most beautiful woman I ever saw, too. 

The mother of four children, two of whom are 
married, Mrs. Sunday has found it possible to spend a 
great deal of her time traveling with her husband at 
the same time maintaining a home for him — first at 
Chicago and later at Winona Lake. It has always 
been open and ready for entertainment on a moment's 
notice. For all her much living in hotels and continued 
traveling, meeting with business men, clergymen, news- 
papermen and others, Mrs. Sunday has preserved that 
wonderful fidelity to her home instincts, and is in every 
sense a home woman, quite as much as Mr. Sunday is 
a home man, despite the little opportunity either has 
had to enjoy a natural inclination. 

A charming picture of the life of the evangelist 
and his wife is given by Miss Julia Brandon Cole in 
the South Bend Tribune. Miss Cole visited Mr. and 
Mrs. Sunday at their home and giving her impression 
of the woman says : 



"ma'' 179 

Mrs. Sunday is a homely women in the truest 
sense of the old English word. Plain of face, com- 
fortable of figure and characterized by a sym- 
pathetic smile and the kindest eyes in the world, 
her entire personality breathes quiet efficiency. 

She sat before the broad window in the living 
room of her home looking out over the lake the 
other day as she talked about the coming revival 
in South Bend and experiences which the party 
has had in other towns. About her things were in 
confusion for the household was cleaning house 
in true old fashioned manner. 

Although the two boys were excitedly watch- 
ing dust gather in the glass jar of a vacuum cleaner, 
seriously hampering the manipulator and the maid 
was rushing about superintending odd jobs of the 
men of the Sunday party who were spending a few 
days at the cottage, the confusion seemed to fall 
away from her. Matters referred continually to 
her were disposed of instantly with quiet decision, 
and without interrupting the thread of her talk. 

With a feeling of sympathy for the house- 
wife whose home program must be continually dis- 
arranged by the constant moving from point to 
point I asked if she objected to the frequent up- 
heaval of moving about. Here I received the first 
insight into an attitude which fairly permeates the 
entire household and party. 

"Why, no," with a smile of genuine surprise, 
"it is necessary, so I accept it as a matter of course." 

Her tone held something of reproof and I 
hastened to explain that in putting up preserves 
and caring for household matters must of neces- 
sity be difficult under such conditions. 

"People should just see my provision closet," 
she laughed, "I guess they would admit I don't let 
my family starve." 

"Mamma where's my tennis racket?" this from 
young Billy, and she arose hastily to produce the 
lost traps. 



180 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

As she seated herself again she fell to chatting 
about revival reminiscences. 

"You know about 75 per cent of the church 

membership are women which would indicate that 

they are more easily reached than men. But in 

' revival work I believe a man's heart is touched 

more quickly than a woman. 

"A woman once reached, however, will not rest 
until the men she is interested in, her husband, her 
brother, father or her sweetheart, have been con- 
' verted. Nine out of 10 women have unconverted 
husbands and with tears in their eyes their first 
request will be that we pray for their husband. 

"It is seldom that a woman will grow 
hysterical in the audience, improbable as that may 
first appear. Generally hysteria or fainting may be 
traced to physical or nervous condition. 

"No disturbance is allowed, anyhow, from 
such incidents. If a woman faints or a baby 
cries, there is a trained corps of ushers who take 
them out immediately before the interruption can 
• break the attention of the audience. Crying babies 
are about the only thing Mr. Sunday is really fussy 
about. 

"He never allows scoffing or argument during 
the course of a meeting he just says 'two can't 
talk at once, and I'm on the job' and refuses to al- 
low any discussion." 

While Miss Cole was interviewing Mrs. Sunday 
the evangelist came into the house clad in his outdoor 
togs and after his fashion entered at once into the con- 
versation. Miss Cole asked him among other things 
whether it were true, as had been reported, that he em- 
ployes detectives previous to conducting a campaign 
in a city. She thus details what happened: 



"ma^^ 181 

"That's one thing I wish you would explain 
once for all, make it as strong as you please. I 
never employed a detective to get information 
against a town in my life. I won't listen or use 
information given by anyone unless they are willing 
to make sworn affidavit to their statements. 

"Moreover, I never use an anonymous letter. 
The first thing I do when I open a letter is to look 
for the signature. If it isn't signed into the waste 
basket it goes. I don't even read it. That's a \/ 

rule I made when I first began evangelistic work 
and I have never broken it. I never saw a town 
that had so many crazy ideas about me as South 
Bend," he fumed. 

He turned away brusquely. 

And what about Sunday baseball, I called. 

"I never compromise with the devil." 

But if it is a factory town where men can't 
go on week days and if they didn't have ball they'd 
go to the beer picnics — 

"Why they go isn't your business. I'm against 
it ! Once and for always." 

"Papa," she interrupted, "I wish we could 
get some grass seed in before the rain." 

"So do I." 

"Hadn't you better put it in?" 

"There's a bucket back there. Why don't 
you use that?" 

"All right." 

A minute later a pacified Billy Sunday crossed 
the lawn lugging a big tin wash boiler of grass 
seed. Then his wife pointed out where he should 
sow it while she called to young Billy to go take his 
music lesson. 

"He won't go unless he's sent each time," she 
laughed. 

"Mr. Sunday always has strength enough to 
do what is before him," said his wife later, talk- 
ing of his reported recent nervous collapse. He 



y 



182 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

speaks so often of the way the Lord gives him extra 
strength. We see it plainly all the time. For in- 
i stance, he has to be very careful not to take cold 

V/ after a sermon when he is perspiring heavily for 

it effects his voice. Now no matter how strong a 
draft he may stand in when he is shaking hands 
with converts, he never catches cold. 

'"Other times he takes a closed carriage to his 
room and rubs down being careful not to get cold. 
He never drinks water when he is talking as so 
many speakers do." 

Talk drifted to Mrs. Sunday's experiences in 
Columbus where the women entreated her to ac- 
company their car to Washington for the suffrage 
demonstration. 

"I couldn't go, I couldn't have gotten away in 
the first place. Besides I'm not an ardent suf- 
fragette. Women will probably have the vote in 
time and that is all right if they want it. 

'T don't believe the American women will ever 
adopt the tactics of the English. They are too well 
balanced and they haven't the provocation. But if 
they had to stand what the English women do and 
were treated as they are, I shouldn't blame them." 

So much for life at Winona Lake. 

At Steubenville an ambitious scribe attempted to 
chronicle the activities of Mrs. Sunday during the 
routine of a campaign. The Steubenville Gazette 
gives this outline : 

Arise at 8 a. m. 

Breakfast, 8:30. 

Hunted up Treasurer of Steubenville Evan- 
gelistic Association. 

Paid bills for Colonel Albert P. Gill. 

Dictation one hour and a half to Secretary 
Robert ^latthews. 



"ma^^ 183 

Opening left-over mail. 

In it found bill for 70 cents for repairs to 
furnace at Winona Lake home. Sent check for 
same. 

Dispatched payment for laundry bill to South 
Bend, Ind. 

Wrote and sent nine letters. 

Answered phone a dozen times. 

Helped Billy Sunday get ready to work. 

Brought paper, sharpened pencils and pro- 
cured other necessary materials. Sunday works 
fast and likes everything directly at hand, so as to 
insure no delay. It is Ma's duty to see that nothing 
is overlooked. 

Afternoon. 

Man came to talk business. Mrs. Sunday 
stayed at home to attend to this matter, thus per- 
mitting Billy to devote his entire attention to his 
regular duties. 

Wrote and dispatched four more letters, one 
to an expert accountant in Pittsburg; .another to 
a convict in the Ohio penitentiary. 

Received two callers. 

Answered a letter to the editor of The 
Beacon Journal, Akron, O. 

Two ladies called, one of whom had an ap- 
pointment by mail. 

Rodeheaver introduced a singer who wished 
to try out with the idea of joining the Sunday 
party. 

Washed. 

Supper. 

Evening. 

Prepared her husband's clothing for three 
changes during the day, took out and put in buttons 
and laid out clothes ready for his immediate use. 

Attended evening service. 

Prepared Bill's lemonade. 



184 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Yes, Ma Sunday is some busy lady. Bill took 
a sip of the temperance thirst-quencher, then said, 
"And if Ma hadn't been here I'd have to attend to 
all this. Wouldn't have had a minute for my 
work." 

That the helpful relation existing between Mr. 
and Mrs. Sunday is apparent to the casual observer is 
indicated by the following letter which appeared in the 
Columbus Citizen after the close of the campaign in 
that city in the usual column of letters from our read- 
ers. Under a caption of "The Power of Nell" the let- 
ter goes on to say : 

Whatever Billy Sunday has done for Co- 
lumbus, he cannot have failed to have left, deeply 
imprinted in the hearts of all that heard him preach, 
a wonderful example of the love of a strong man 
for his wife. Who can have failed to notice his 
loving references to "Nell." From the first day 
to the last of his seven weeks' campaign he ac- 
knowledged her power. Billy Sunday has come 
and gone. That he had power and success is shown 
by 18,000 human beings accepting his teachings and 
publicly acknowledging their faith. He has shown 
it by the subscription of $21,000 for his meritorious 
work. But back of it all is "Nell." 

Sunday evening when Billy Sunday had closed 
an inspiring sermon in Memorial Hall and the 
people were halting on decision, "Nell" stepped in 
to the breach, lead the choir and all unconscious of 
her power swung several hundred penitent to a 
public acknowledgment of God. And the beauty 
of it all was that she was not striving to establish 
something. No, she was just trying to show her- 
self a real, live helpmate. Just trying to help 
Billy, that was all. No wonder Billy Sunday 
speaks reverently when he says "Nell." 



"ma^^ 185 

Far more than the average outsider is permitted 
to know Mrs. Sunday figures in the counsel of the 
family and in the determination of the activities of the 
evangelist. No campaign of any moment is agreed 
upon without her assent. Anything like an innovation 
in arrangements is referred to her for advice. Like 
the wives of many great men she looks after the detail 
of his physical comfort with great care. She it is who 
sees that he has his overcoat immediately after a 
period of strenuous exertion. She skillfully extracts 
him from the throng of curious who press about him 
at the conclusion of every meeting, and on the other 
hand sees to it that not the smallest child who has real 
cause to meet the evangelist fails of doing so. 

Wherever possible in campaigns the Sunday party 
secures a private home for living and for headquarters. 
Only where this is impossible do they accept hotel ac- 
commodations. Usually the family housekeeper comes 
on and looks after the routine affairs of the house. 
In determining upon the choice of a hotel for the Sun- 
day party, the local committee has to be very careful 
It must not have a bar. As the great majority of 
leading hotels have, Sunday is forced to accept second- 
class accommodations. In Columbus, for instance, 
he refused residence at five modern hotels and settled 
his party in a small family hostelry in a residence sec- 
tion of the city. Quite frequently the smaller children 
are visitors and whenever the campaigns are within 
twelve hours by rail from Winona at least one or two 
rest days are spent there. 

In September 19 13 the Sundays celebrated their 
silver wedding anniversary, and press dispatches thus 
describe the event : 



186 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Billy Sunday and wife reached the twenty- 
fifth year of their married life on September 5th 
and they celebrated the event quietly but happily 
at Winona Lake. A number of their friends called 
at the Sunday home during the day and offered 
their congratulations on their silver wedding anni- 
versary. Mr. and Mrs. Sunday received congratu- 
latory messages from friends and admirers in all 
parts of the country. 

"The evangelist is just as devoted to his wife 
today as he was a quarter of a century ago when 
he was courting "Ma," then Nell, in Chicago, while 
he played on the old Chicago White Sox base- 
ball team. Billy always has an eye for the com- 
fort of Mrs. Sunday wherever they go and if his 
wife is not at his side he is continually inquiring 
of her whereabouts. 

Mrs. Sunday has business ability rarely given 
to women and can conduct the affairs of her hus- 
band evangelist better than he himself, accord- 
ing to his own confession. 

His little peculiarities, what he likes, what 
he dislikes, how things should be conducted are 
known to her and she always makes every possible 
effort to see that accommodations are suitable to 
his comfort. 

Mrs. Sunday has that same tact that enables 
a woman to accomplish great results while ap- 
parently moving in the even tenor of her way. 
Their home life is an ideal one of Christian com- 
panionship and they have thus joyously passed their 
silver wedding and are working on hand to hand 
and hearts attuned to the sweet distant chimes of 
golden wedding bells. 

Until the last trumpet has sounded the world never 
will know how much of what is accredited to Evan- 
gelist W. A. Sunday, is in truth, due to the one afifec- 
tionately known as "Ma." She is a steadying balance 



"ma^^ 187 

wheel to an excitable and nervous temperament; a 
sure source of inspiration when his patience is tried; 
a buffer between the many annoyances of life and their 
intended object; the sure and level headed counselor 
when decisions must be wisely made ; the devoted and 
unwearied assistant both in tedious detail and in splen- 
did generalization Mrs Sunday has come to be known 
among those who have had opportunity of intimate 
observation, as the power behind the throne. 

With the true moral instincts which the Saxon 
race everywhere has come to revere, her greatest de- 
light is in the success and achievements of her hus- 
band. Without reservation her life has been given 
wholly to him since the day they were joined in wed- 
lock. From that day the star of W. A. Sunday has 
brightened on the horizon until it has stood at the 
zenith, flaming as the noonday sun. How much of that 
light is Billy Sunday's, the base ball evangelist, and 
how much of it is the self-denying, level-headed, 
Scotch determination of Nelle Thompson, daughter 
of a Chicago ice cream dealer, no one, not even "Ma," 
herself can tell. 



CHAPTER XV 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EVANGELIST 

Mr. Sunday's love for home ^ The cottage at Winona 
Lake — How the rest hours are spent — Description 
of Bungalow — Some notable presents — The evan- 
gelist's three hobbies — What his neighbors think — 
Personal likes and dislikes of the evangelist — About 
clothes — Some favorite books — His career as a 
writer — The abandoned biography — The Sunday 
family. 

189 



CHAPTER XV 



^yOME — there is a word to conjure with. Through 
m/ the operation of a peculiar law which no one 
li^y seems to fully understand those love it most who 
know it least. The Anglo-Saxon temperament, try as 
it will, cannot accommodate itself to the nomadic prac- 
tices of the Saracen and the Gypsy. The nature of a 
man's calling signifies little if that calling takes him 
far from home. A traveling salesman, actor, evan- 
gelist, lecturer, musician or what not, not only cherishes 
his home with a fondness and a vigor which those who 
are more settled in their habits do not know, but mani- 
fests in their homes a disposition and character at 
variance with that which the world at large knows. 

A man is both at his best and at his worst in his 
home. Therefore, no man is fully known until he is 
seen in his home. As no man is a hero to his valet so 
do few men display in their homes those attributes 
which the world at large admires. 

On the other hand, only in the home are the 
gentler aspects of humanity fully unveiled. The love 
of home is coupled with love of children. Simplicity 
of tastes and habits are the natural co-relation of men- 
tal superiority and spiritual stature. 

Winona Lake, a summer resort and Bible student 
town which nestles on the banks of a little lake in 
Northern Indiana, is ''home" for Rev. W. A. Sunday. 
Lionized from coast to coast he becomes here the vil- 
lage oracle. Matched for him in greatness in the es- 

191 



192 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

timation of the multitude is his fellow-townsman, Wil- 
liam Jennings Bryan, who despite his official residence 
in Nebraska is president of the Winona Association, 
and has repeatedly spoken in public of its importance 
and the work that is being carried on there. 

Between Mr. Sunday and Mr. Bryan, Winona 
Lake may rely safely on being kept before the public 
eye as long as these gentlemen retain their normal 
activity. 

But Winona Lake is the place to see Mr. Sunday 
as a man. There the human side of his character un- 
folds itself to best advantage. There he has an oppor- 
tunty of gratifying, in part at least, his love for nature 
and his pleasure in communing with her in the simplest 
manner. Mr. Sunday has said that when old age 
creeps on he wishes to retire to a farm. Until such 
time, however, Winona offers the proper compromise 
between complete rustic existence and the crowd and 
rush of city life. Raking the leaves, tending the lawn, 
planting and pruning flowers, walking or sitting in the 
shade of the large trees, reading, Mr. Sunday puts in 
most of the daylight hours of his vacation days out of 
doors at Winona. 

The Sunday home at Winona Lake has been the 
subject of considerable public discussion because of the 
large sums alleged to have been spent on it. While in 
Columbus Mr. Sunday made a public offer to sell it to 
anyone who would give him $5000 for it. He said : 

They have circulated the report that I live in. 
a $40,000 mansion. The facts are that Nell planned 
the place and it cost us just $3,700 to build it. 
Then we spent about a thousand more on interior 




iHE SuxDAy Cottage at Wixoxa Lake, Ixd. 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EVANGELIST 193 

decorations and fixtures. If anybody's got the nerve 
to ojffer me $5,000 for the place I'll take is so quick 
it'll make his head swim. 

The home is described as a modest frame bun- 
galow with nine or ten rooms, standing on a stretch of 
lawn overlooking the lake. 

After a visit of Wilbur R. Armstrong of the 
South Bend Tribune to Winona, he gave the following 
description of the place and his meeting with the 
evangelist : 

"Come in and look through my $40,000 home," 
said he laughing, "the house cost me exactly $3,800 
to build." 

Inside he explained the $40,000 connection 
with his residence. 

"Mrs. Sunday and I always call it out our 
$40,000 home," said he, "because the 'booze crowd' 
have advertised it from one end of the country 
to the other that that is what I paid for it. The 
truth of the matter is it cost me exactly $3,800, and 
I spent about $1,000 in addition for interior decora- 
tions. So it is an investment of just about $5,000, 
exactly one-eight of the amount charged against me 
by the 'booze gang.' 

"We think we have it right cozy here, 'Mam- 
ma' and I," said Sunday as he dropped into an easy 
chair near the door. 

A thorough search of the dictionary would 
not bring forth a more appropriate word to de- 
scribe the Sunday home interior and exterior, than 
"cozy." 

It is ideally planned and so filled with pretty 
things that you want to ask the evangelist if he 
has ever been tempted to remain at home for the 
balance of his days. 

13 



194 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

The question unasked, was answered indi- 
rectly a short time after when Mrs. Sunday volun- 
teered the information that "Papa" always dreaded 
to think of leaving it again after a rest there. 

The entire width of the front of the house 
is taken up with one large room, which is a com- 
bination of parlor, sitting room, den and music 
room. It is finished and furnished elegantly. A 
wide hallway runs from this room to the rear of 
the house. On the walls are displayed beautiful 
enlargements of various members of the evangelist's 
family; oils, painted by Mrs. Sunday several years 
ago, and other pictures of interest. The display 
is so arranged that the passageway assumes the ap- 
pearance of an art gallery rather than an unattrac- 
tive hall. Other rooms throughout the house are 
furnished on practically the same scale as the front 
of the house. 

There is evidence that expense was not spared 
in furnishing although Mr. and Mrs. Sunday were 
both constantly pointing out things of value about 
the house which had been presented them by ad- 
miring friends. 

These gifts ranged in variety from sets of 
dishes to Panama hats. The former were gifts 
largely from people in the pottery towns of Penn- 
sylvania and the hat came from Robert Wolfe, 
"Bob" Wolfe, Sunday called him, the owner of the 
two newspapers in Columbus, Ohio. The hat lay 
on the bed in one of the rooms, a very ordinary 
appearing hat at first glance, but one which would 
have cost Mr. Sunday $60 or $75 if he had at- 
tempted to buy it in a haberdashery. 

One of the most notable gifts to the Sun- 
days brought to light during the visit, was an 
elaborate clock, six feet in height, which occupies 
a prominent position to the front of the house. 
This clock was the gift of a Masonic lodge in an 
eastern city and its value is something between 
$300 and $400. 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EVANGELIST 195 

Mr. and Mrs. Sunday are proud of their Wi- 
nona home and they make no effort to conceal their 
pride. The Sundays there are as different from 
the Sundays of "the sawdust trail," as day and 
night. 

Sunday in the pulpit is a fiery orator; a mag- 
netic figure who commands men; a man who utters 
words of fire, which some people label vulgar and 
coarse. In his home he is a quiet, orderly sort of a 
person, who pets his children and visits with his 
wife on topics of the day. 

Mr. Armstrong writing on another occasion says : 

Billy Sunday has three hobbies, religion, home 
and baseball. The evangelist fairly revels in the 
pleasure of his home. Not infrequently he travels 
hundreds of miles while in the midst of one of his 
campaigns to spend a few hours at his beau- 
tiful cottage at Winona Lake. When he reaches 
Winona Lake he immediately plans to secure all the 
recreation possible. His usual natty apparel is 
discarded for something old and tried and true. He 
arrays himself in a loose fitting suit, a soft hat, 
battered with much usage, and coUarless shirt. He 
spends every possible moment in the open air. He 
derives keen enjoyment in caring for plants and 
flowers on the lawn. 

Residents of Winona Lake owe much to Mr. 
and Mrs, Sunday for the beauty of the park there. 
Each spring and at intervals during the summer 
months they hire students at the Winona Academy 
to clean up and care for the entire park. Often the 
evangelist and his wife assist in raking the leaves, 
carrying away broken limbs and otherwise doing 
the work of gardeners. Mr. Sunday knows every 
boy at the school. When he and his wife pass 



196 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

through the park they are the subject of continued 
greetings. To the students Mrs. Sunday is "Ma," 
and Mr. Sunday is known as the "professor." 

The younger children — William Jr. and Paul — 
share with their father in the unbounded admiration 
for Winona. Although as much as possible he has the 
children with him on his trips, proper regard for their 
education makes this possible only at comparatively 
long intervals, and there are few places out of the 
many reached in the travels of Mr. Sunday that appeal 
to the boys as much as Winona. 

Mr. Sunday's neighbors are most proud of him 
and his good wife. They always appear delighted with 
the fact he selected Winona Lake as his home, and they 
never make any attempt to conceal their pleasure at 
having him with them. At the assembly each year 
there is one day bigger than the Fourth of July and 
Christmas. That is a day along early in the summer, 
when Mr. Sunday delivers his annual address to his 
neighbors and the patrons of Winona. Thousands of 
farmers for miles around drive to Winona each year 
to hear Mr. Sunday make his annual address. Usually 
he delivers a new sermon at the opening of the assem- 
bly, a fact which is always known to his neighbors 
and a source of no little pride on their part. 

Mr. Sunday's neighbors almost with one accord 
agree that he is the greatest agency in the world today 
for the cause of righteousness. The majority of them 
there were converted through their association with 
him, and they are probably as devout and God-fearing 
group of Billy Sunday penitents as he can boast. 

Dozens of people down at Winona Lake and at 
Warsaw, Indiana, a little town a couple of miles from 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EVANGELIST 197 

the resort swell with pride at their acquaintanceship 
with Mr. Sunday whenever his name is mentioned. 
They swear by his sincerity, challenge his enemies to 
prove their charges, and declare he is doing more 
good in the world "than any other dozen ministers 
alive." No matter where he is conducting a campaign 
they watch the revival from day to day and their heads 
are fairly filled with figures and statistics by which 
they know whether "Billy" is proving more of a suc- 
cess in one town than he did in another; just how cer- 
tain of his more famous sermons succeeded in winning 
souls, and the precise condition of health of himself 
and wife. 

In his personal life Mr. Sunday is simple. He 
has his tastes, his likes and dislikes, but these sel- 
dom express themselves in an exaggerated form. He 
is a good dresser, a moderate eater, an omnivorous 
reader, and a consistent devotee to outdoor life. De- 
spite the extraordinary exertions he makes habitually 
during his campaign, he enjoys exceptional health. At 
50 he could readily pass for 40. With the exception 
of an occasional attack of hay fever he is seldom ill. 
To combat this insidious malady he frequently spends 
the summer in the Hood River district of Oregon 
where he owns a considerable fruit farm. It is one of 
the Sunday traits of good will that he frequently sends 
those whom he wishes to compliment in a peculiarly 
personal manner, a barrel of apples raised on his west- 
ern ranch. 

Despite his continued outdoor exercises and his 
extraordinary physical exertion incident to his preach- 
ing Mr. Sunday is a light sleeper. Often he spends 
but four or five hours out of the twenty-four in sleep. 



198 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Among any gathering of clergymen he stands out 
conspicuously as a well-dressed man. It is seldom in- 
deed that he effects the conventional garb of the pulpit 
and appears rather as a dapper man of business. A 
careful tailor has contrived to give him the advantage 
of every inch of his height so that he appears some- 
what taller than he is in reality. The physical exer- 
cise which is a part of so many of his sermons is neces- 
sarily severe on his raiment and this compels him to 
carry what amounts to a cleaning establishment with 
him wherever he goes. When occasion demands Mr, 
Sunday can press a suit of clothes quite as well as he 
can deliver a sermon. During a campaign he is fre- 
quently obliged to change from head to foot as many 
as four times a day, and this involves a wardrobe that 
ib quite large. The peculiar loyalty of the man prompts 
him to have his laundry done at an establishment near 
his home, so that no matter where he may be preach- 
ing, huge bundles of linen go and come from Indiana. 

Air. Sunday's literary activities are carried on for 
the most part at Winona and sometimes at his fruit 
ranch in Oregon. The exacting demands on his time 
during a campaign admit of very little new work. At 
Winona it is his favorite method to take his Bible and 
spend the long days beneath the trees reading. This 
he calls resting and with the single exception of preach- 
ing to a responsive audience, is his favorite occupation. 
He is also fond of books relating to evangelistic and 
kindred work. 

"There are some books I like to read" he says, 
"I consider the Bible the best of them all. I also 
think the lives of Peter Cartwright, Charles G. 
Phinney and John G. Patten are among the greatest 



\ 



fHE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EVANGELIST 199 

of all books. Phinney converted the owner of the 
New York mills at Utica, New York, and since he 
campaigned there, the mills have not been in the 
hands of non-Christian men." 

In comparing his sermons for use Mr. Sunday be- 
gins by noting various quotations and anecdotes which 
will illustrate the theme he wishes to handle. Nota- 
tions of these are made on all sorts of scraps of paper 
and are then turned over to his secretary who shapes 
them into memoranda. Gradually the sermon takes 
form in the preacher's mind and then with a great 
sheaf of notes in his hand he whips the whole into 
something like the form in which it will be used. Sel- 
dom if ever, however, are even his famous sermons 
preached twice exactly alike. He never goes intO' the 
pulpit with more than an outline before him. His ex- 
traordinary memory permits him to quote lengthy 
passages verbatim, but on this he does not rely for 
effect. It is in the infusion of intense personal enthu- 
siasm that the most remarkable results from his dis- 
courses come. 

In his earlier days Mr. Sunday made no effort to 
copyright any of his writings. What he considered 
unwarranted liberties with the text, however, later 
prompted him to do so, and in a little more than three 
years he copyrighted no less than 31 of his discourses. 

The records of the Library of Congress show the 
following titles, copyrights of which are in his name : 

Amusements. 

And he said tomorrow. 

Atonement. 

Backsliders. 

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. 



200 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Get on the water wagon. 

Great reward. 

Home. 

Hope. 

How shall we escape? 

How to succeed. 

If any man will. 

If ye love me, keep my commandments. 

Incarnation. 

Is it well with thee? 

Judgment, 

Little plain talks — Character. 

Moral leper. 

Nathan and David. 

No man cared for my soul. 

Not far from the Kingdom. 

Nuts for skeptics to crack. 

Power of motherhood. 

Question of the ages. 

Samson. 

Three great questions. 

Three groups. 

Twenty-third Psalm. 

Unpardonable sin. 

What must I do to be saved? 

What shall the end be? 

Title to one other copyright stands in the name 
of Mr. Sunday, this is for a book entitled "Life and 
Labors of Rev. Wm. A. (Billy) Sunday, the Great 
Modern Evangehst ; With Selected Sermons." It was 
copyrighted in the year 1908 by S. T. Herman and E. 
E. Poole, of Decatur, Illinois, and published by a 
printing establishment in Chicago. 

The only feature of the book, which properly can 
be considered a life, are four pages of introduction. 
In the first paragraph of this introduction there are 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EVANGELIST 201 

no less than five errors in fact, other portions of the 
meager outline are more or less at variance with ac- 
tual conditions, although there is nothing to indicate 
any greater offense than carelessness. 

The bulk of the 360 pages is taken up with re- 
productions of sermons. The readers of the book, if 
there be any, would have recognized whole pages of 
familiar expressions which he had heard in the taber- 
nacle. The evangelist, however, more intimately fa- 
miliar with the construction of all his works, finds that 
a number of his sermons were ruthlessly joined to- 
gether and the entire continuity of thought disturbed. 

Mr. Sunday, therefore, made it his business, at a 
considerable outlay in cash, to secure both the copy- 
right and the plates of the book, which he destroyed 
and effectively prevented any further issue. Copies 
are extremely rare and indeed none are known to ex- 
ist outside of the Library of Congress. Thus ended 
the only previous attempt to put in book form the do- 
ings of the evangelist. 

His public career has brought to Mr. Sunday a 
number of offers to embark in educational work of one 
sort and another. These he has steadily refused even 
when they came in the attractive form of the head 
of a department of an institution like the University 
of the Southwest at Dallas, Texas, an institution with 
milhons behind it and backed by the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. Chautauquas and lecture bureaus have 
offered him almost unbelievable sums, but they have 
been regularly refused. When Mr. Sunday does de- 
liver an address or a series of addresses outside of his 
regular campaign his practice is to donate his services 



202 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

and to accept no other fee than his traveling expenses 
to and from the place where he may be heard. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sunday have been blessed with four 
children, one girl and three boys. Helen the oldest 
born in 1891, is now Mrs. Mark P. Haines; George, 
born in 1894 is also married, his wife was Miss Har- 
riet Mason; William Jr. who perpetuates the name of 
his father, was born in 1902, and Paul, the only one 
to receive a Bible designation, was born in 1908. Paul 
was named after the evangelist's favorite apostle. 



CHAPTER XVI 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENTS AND 
QUOTATIONS 

Gov. Harmon and Mr. Sunday — Gov. Tener's opinion — 
Gov. Cox talks — Famous wagon maker a friend — 
Preacher and prize fighter meet — Told to Ohio 
convicts — At governor's inaugural reception — More 
Billy Sundays needed — Mr, Sunday and his critics — 
Why Sunday uses slang — Sunday newspapers barred 
— Advice to high school students — What converts 
cost — Sunday on troubles — Sunday's view on di- 
vorce — Prayer to the passing year — Sunday's poem 
of farewell — Sunday favors woman's suffrage — Ser- 
mon to women only — Sunday's journey through the 
Bible — Sunday on amusements — Sunday's dream of 
heaven — Sunday's estimate of Solomon — Sunday's 
version versus Bible — Paraphrase of feeding the mul- 
titude, Sunday's version, Matthew's version — Sun- 
day's tribute to Gen. Lee — Sunday's tribute to Lin- 
coln. 

203 



CHAPTER XVI 



mANY incidents of the life and work of Rev. 
W. A. Sunday are of interest and worthy 
of preservation, without having any essential 
connection with his life's history. These have been 
culled and set down, for the pleasure of the admirers 
of the evangelist. Whenever possible the authority 
has been cited. 

There are also appended a number of quotations 
and excerpts from his sermons, which have had an 
unusual vogue in the newspapers. No attempt has 
been made to give these their original setting. They 
are given here for convenient reference in a perma- 
nent form. 

GOVERNOR JUDSON HARMON AND MR. SUNDAY 

When Evangelist Billy Sunday and Governor 
Harmon exchanged greetings in the latter's office Sat- 
urday two things of similarity in their lives developed 
about which they could swap pleasantries. 

''Your father was a preacher and so was mine," 
said Uncle Jud. Whereupon they shook on the fact. 

Then Governor Harmon held up his right hand, 
exhibited a gnarled and bent digit and smilingly said, 
"and we're pals when it comes to the diamond, too. 
You know I used to play baseball and there's a finger 
I had broken in a game." 

Billy then displayed both hands, neither one evi- 
dencing any scars of the diamond. ''Nope, I haven't 

205 



206 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

any," he said. "I used to be pretty lucky on the dia- 
mond and never managed to get my fingers in the way 
of the ball." — Columbus Citizen. 

GOVERNOR TENER's OPINION 

Asked what he thought of Billy Sunday, Gov. 
Tener, of Pennsylvania, who played ball against him 
back in the nineties, made answer in this semi-solil- 
oquy and semi-quiz fashion : "Wouldn't he make a 
dandy in politics?" 

Those who know something of politics and who 
have heard Sunday quite agree with Pennsylvania's 
chief executive. — SteuhenvUle Gazette. 

GOVERNOR JAMES M. COX TALKS 

"Billy Sunday's success in this city ought not to 
be surprising. The man has a wonderful personality. 
He has a splendid organization. He has the right side 
of the argument. He is simply bound to succeed at 
anything he undertakes and we are all fortunate that 
he has undertaken to help men to lead better lives by 
inducing them to embrace religion." 

— Columbus Dispatch. 

FAMOUS WAGOX MAKER A FRIEND 

"Hello, Clem." 

"Howdy, Bill!" 

That's all that could be heard of a conversation 
between Clement Studebaker, jr., of Sounth Bend, and 
Billy Sunday just before he began his evening sermon 
in the tabernacle last night. 



EPISODES^ INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 207 

It was a reunion of old college chums for the two 
men were classmates at Northwestern University, 
Chicago, in 1888 and 1889 and have had no opportunity 
to get together in years. 

Meeting Mr. Studebaker again, and talking of old 
times together, was one of Mr. Sunday's desires as 
soon as he decided he would come to South Bend. 

While his old classmate pleaded for the cause of 
revivals in probably the most eloquent sermon he has 
delivered thus far, Mr. Studebaker sat with members 
of the Sunday party just behind the evangelist. J. 
M. Studebaker, sr., who has known Sunday for a num- 
ber of years, sat with the other Mr. Studebaker, also 
as a guest of the Sunday party. — South Bend Tribune. 

PREACHER AND PRIZE FIGHTER MEET 

"Battling Nelson is the whitest pug in the busi- 
ness," said Evangelist Billy Sunday Monday. 

"1 never met Bat until yesterday. He strikes me 
as a mighty fine fellow and I was awfully glad to see 
him at the meeting Sunday night. He tells me he 
does not drink, smoke or chew, and I consider him 
one of the straightest men in the fighting line." 

''Billy's great," exclaimed Battling Nelson Sun- 
day night during the evangelist's sermon. *'He ain't 
afraid to say what he thinks and I like him for it. I 
really have no religion myself except that of doing 
what I think is right, and I sometimes believe that is 
the best kind of religion; better anyway than that of 
some of these religious fanatics." 

— Columbus Citizen. 



208 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

TOLD TO OHIO CONVICTS 

Alexander Motherwell, superintendent of the 
Buick Motor Co. of Flint, Alich., gave an interesting 
testimonial. ''Thirty years ago I helped build these 
walls about you and also the water tower which pro- 
tects these buildings from fire," he said. ''Tw^enty 
years ago I was chasing through the country to keep 
out of this prison. I was converted by Rev. Mr. Sun- 
day ten years ago in Chicago, and started working 
regularly. I kept climbing from humble positions to 
foreman, superintendent, until now I am out of debt, 
own my home and drive my own automobile. Thirty 
years ago there wasn't a man in Lancaster who would 
lend me fifty cents. Last summer I went down there, 
took the leading banker out in my machine, and fin- 
ally sold him one. There was a time down there when 
they said I wouldn't amount to a 'whip scratch,' and 
I didn't until I took the word of Jesus Christ." 

— Columbus Dispatch. 

AT governor's inaugural RECEPTION 

Billy Sunday attended the governor's reception at 
the State House Monday evening. It was at first ru- 
mored that the evangelist, who had frowned on the 
inaugural ball, would not attend the reception, but at 
about 8 130 he appeared, accompanied by Mrs. Sunday 
and B. D. Ackley and went down the receiving line. 

Before they reached the senate chamber, however, 
Billy became lost in the "wilds" of the State House 
and had to be accompanied by an usher. He and Mrs. 
Sunday awaited their turn in the great crowd that was 
waiting to go "down the line." The man next to the 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 209 

governor did not recognize Billy when he came along, 
asked him his name and then presented him to the 
governor, as "Mr. Saunders." But the governor recog- 
nized him. ''Well, well," he said putting out his hand, 
"Ffyi glad to see you. You're coming dozvn to see me 
before you leave, aren't youf" 

''You bet," said Billy. 

Before the reception Sunday had ridden in the 
inaugural parade and attended the formal 6 o'clock 
dinner at the Ohio club. 

This dinner, although brief, was one of the hap- 
piest events of the day. "Billy" Sunday turned his 
wine glass upside down and asked the blessing before 
the "eats." 

"We beseech Thee to bless Governor Cox and the 
state officials who today took hold of the guiding reins 
of the state government," Sunday prayed, "and we 
thank Thee that today when Governor Cox took the 
oath of office his hand rested on the old family Bible, 
in which is recorded the names of children and which 
is probably stained with the tears of his old mother, 
who has read and pondered over its pages and who 
taught the family to love and revere the Christ which 
it reveals." — Columbus Citizen. 

MORE BILLY SUNDAYS NEEDED 

This country, and the world, should have more 
Billy Sundays in the evangelistic field. Humanity to- 
day is in more of a receptive mood, so far as religion 
is concerned, than ever before in the history of man- 
kind. What is known as the "Men and Religion Move- 
ment" is gaining more and more force and momentum 
14 



210 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

every year. This sort of a movement a quarter of a 
century ago would have proven a flat failure because 
of lack of interest or sympathy, while at the present 
time some of the strongest men in the country are 
giving it their most hearty support. 

We are not surprised to learn that Billy Sunday 
has made a great success of the Columbus campaign. 
He will make a success wherever he goes, because the 
people of no city are quite so dense as not to be able 
to see the good which he accomplishes in their midst. 

— East Liverpool Review. 

MR. SUNDAY AND HIS CRITICS 

In one hundred years of Columbus history, there 
is no record of anybody who preached here the gospel 
of Jesus Christ as Billy Sunday is now preaching it. 
There are many who do not like it and do not hesi- 
tate to say so. They object to this, that and the other 
feature of the evangelistic campaign, and perhaps they 
are right. 

The fact remains, however, that there are many, 
perhaps more, who do like this unconventional, rough- 
and-tumble preaching and seem likely to be benefited 
by it. There is the testimony of one of his critics that 
Mr. Sunday is preaching the greatest fundamental 
truths of right living. The accessories only are ob- 
jected to. But these are for him what the circulation 
department is to a newspaper. They make it possible 
for him to tell the truth to tens of thousands where 
he might otherwise proclaim it only to empty benches. 

— Columbus Dispatch. 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 211 

WHY SUNDAY USES SLANG 

During one of his sermons yesterday Sunday 
halted long enough to tell the people why he likes to 
use slang expressions. 

''I like good old Anglo-Saxon words," said the 
evangelist. **They mean more and have more power 
behind them. If I should come here and say you were 
prevaricators and evaders of the truth instead of call- 
ing you the liars that some of you are, it would make 
no more impression than water on a duck's back. 
Slang gets the thing in a nut-shell and makes it easy 
for the people to understand. Preachers would get 
along much better if they used words of a plainer 
type so that the ordinary class would know what they 
are talking about. — Columbus Dispatch. 

SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS BARRED. 

Reading Sunday newspapers in Billy Sunday's 
tabernacles is tabooed. Fred Seibert, tabernacle boss, 
forcibly impressed this fact upon a number of persons 
who went early to secure seats after buying a paper 
on the way, Sunday morning. Scarcely had they un- 
folded the "sheets" and glanced at ''Snookums" and 
the other funny pages than Fred tapped them on the 
shoulder. 

"No reading of Sunday papers allowed here, sirs," 
he said. "If you want to read, get your Bibles and 
read the first and second chapters of Paul's epistle to 
Titus." 

ADVICE TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 

"Be careful where you let your mind go. Don't 
read bad books. Don't go round wearing your hat 



212 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

cocked over one ear. Don't talk too much. Some 
people would make more friends and keep them if 
they were dumb. David didn't make himself the hero 
of every. story he told. The Bible makes it plain that 
the bulldog always gets it in the neck." 

''Idleness is the foe of your youth," he said, talk- 
ing of the habits which grow to mammoth proportions. 

"We want you to win," he continued. "You'll find 
people wherever you go who are willing to give you a 
glad hand if you do right. Be governed by kindness 
and not by disgust." 

"Learn to do common things. Be a Christian so 
that everyone will know it. Don't be afraid they will 
scoff at you. When they find you are in earnest, they'll 
like you so much the better." 

WHAT CONVERTS COST 

That he is paid less proportionately than any other 
evangelist was the statement of Billy Sunday, Friday 
evening. 

"Considering the number of converts and the ag- 
gregate amount of current expenses of the churches 
for the year," said he, "it costs $2,000 to convert one 
soul in New York, $465 in Boston, $445 in Denver, 
$425 in Chicago, $78 in New Orleans and $75 in At- 
lanta. 

"Why less in the South ? Listen, and I'll tell you, 
Why did it take 60,000,000 people in the North four 
years to whip 8,000,000 in the South? Because the 
North was fighting true American blood. That's why 
it is less in the South. The truest blood is south of 
the Mason-Dixon line. 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 213 

"In Spite of all these high figures, you kick about 
what I get. What I'm paid for my work makes it 
only about $2 a soul, and I get less proportionately for 
the number I convert, than any other living evange- 
list." — Columbus Dispatch. 

SUNDAY ON TROUBLES 

There is no back but what has its burden, there's 
no heart but what has its sorrow. 

Trouble is the common lot of all. 

There is no one on God's earth that I pity more 
than the parents of a willful son or daughter. 

The greatest trouble results from sin. 

Trouble makes all poor. All are helpless before 
trouble. 

Standing still in sin is as impossible as standing 
still in fire. 

If you want to read true religious experience 
read the Psalms. 

When a man cries you know he is in great trou- 
ble. 

There is no impossibility with God. 

There are not enough devils in hell or on earth in 
or out of church to stop God's work. 

Religious conditions are in a deplorable condition 
and don't you forget it. 

A man in sin is always in the mire and sinking 
deeper. 

It is a thousand times easier to lead a Christian 
life than to live in sin. 

God's way is made for man and man is made for 
God. The devil's road is mire. 



214 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

suxDAY^s \t:ews on dr^orce 

Billy Sunday is an arch enemy of divorce and 
incidentally he pays a high compliment to the Catholic 
church. In his Sunday night sermon he said : ''Christ 
says, 'What God hath joined together let no man put 
asunder.' The world says : Sve'll divorce you and 
then we'll marr}^ some other woman and we won't 
sin.' (The evangelist clenched his fist), You lie! 

The only scriptural excuse for divorce is adultery. 
When it comes to the divorce question. I'm a Roman 
Catholic from the top of my head to the sole of my 
feet." 

To Sunday's former home in Chicago a dapper 
young man once came, ''dressed fit to kill," and pre- 
sented a bride and a marriage license. 

"Have either of you been married?" Sunday 
asked. 'T have," said the man caressing his silk hat 
and adjusting a diamond shirt stud as big as a hickory 
nut. 

"Is your wife alive?" the evangelist then inquired, 
and the man returned "Yes." 

"Beat it you lobster," was the Sunday ultimatum. 

"What's that?" returned the other, much sur- 
prised. 

"Good night," said the preacher. 

"But I have a license," argued the would-be bride- 
groom. 

"Yes," said Billy, 'there are some things legally 
right that are morally wrong." 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 215 

PRAYER TO THE PASSING YEAR. 

"Well, Old Year, good-bye,'^ began Billy Sun- 
day's prayer New year's eve at the tabernacle. "We 
hate to say the words, because it is like saying fare- 
well to an old friend. But we bid you good-bye. You 
have been good to us. Old Year. You have given us 
days of sunshine; some were splashed with rain. Some 
were light with laughter; others heavy with grief. 
Sometimes our faces were wreathed with smiles ; some- 
times they were bathed with tears. You've left some 
empty chairs by the fireside. Old Year. You've been 
unkind to some of us. There are clothes in some of 
our closets that some little form will never wear 
again. There are some people who would give all they 
have in the world if a little form could toddle through 
the door again and cuddle-doo. Oh, Lord, if you 
have any sorrow in store for my family, defer it as 
long as you can. 

"But good-bye, Old Year. Wait there, little fel- 
low around the corner because the old fellow with the 
beard cannot be with us long. There are thousands 
and tens of thousands of people all over this land who 
will wake up with clean hearts and new resolutions 
in 1913 that when 1912 came in hated God and all thaf 
is good. 

"God, if you'll let me live until tomorrow I'll try 
to be a better preacher. I'll try to hate you more, 
devil, and you know it. Devil, I'll fight you more than 
ever before. You saved my poor miserable soul 26 
years ago and you put a new song in my mouth. For 
26 years I haven't hit the booze ; for 26 years I haven't 
cursed ; for 26 years I've been true ; for 26 years I 



216 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

haven't darkened the door of a theatre except to preach 
the Gospel ; for 26 years I haven't gone to a cheap- 
skate leg show to look through a pair of glasses at 
women who don't have enough clothes on to flag a 
hand car. 

'"Here's a great bunch of preachers over here," 
he said, turning over to the corner where the pastors 
and their families sat, "Lord, bless them. And back 
here is a choir. Oh, Lord if you have one up in glor\ 
that will beat that, you'll have to go some. Bless all 
of them. And Lord, bless the newspapers and the 
boys some of whom L've known in other tov>-n5. Bless 
the State Journal and that man who has written those 
magnificent accounts and the man who draws those 
cartoons on the front page. And bless the Citizen and 
^Ir. Busby whom I have known in other meetings. 
And bless The Dispatch — who's that fellow who's been 
writing for them? — bless Mr. Sheridan. 

''Hear us and help us. Good-bye, Old Year. 
Lead us and guide us, for Jesus' sake." 

— Columbus Dispatch. 

Sunday's poem of farewell 

"How swifth- the years of our pilgrimage fly, 
As the daj'S, weeks and months move silently by; 
"Our days are soon numbered, death sounds our 

knell, ' 
We scarcely know our friends 'till we bid them 
farewell. 

To j-ou fellow-Christians, I turn with delight, 
The grave cannot harm you, your future is bright; 
Be fairthful, be earnest, temptations repel. 
And vou'U soon bid this world a smiling farewell. 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 217 

Farewell, fellow-sinners, Fm free from your blood, 
My message delivered, I leave you with God. 
Fve pleaded, I've entreated, but I could not com- 
pel, 
And 'till the Judgment day breaketh, I bid you 
farewell." 

SUNDAY FAVORS WOMAn's SUFFRAGE 

Woman suffragists ought to like Billy Sunday. 

''Do you favor woman suffrage?" he was asked 
the other day. 

"Why not?" he hurled at the reporter just as 
though the latter were an "anti." 

"I don't know/' murmured the representative of 
the press in a tone measured to encourage Mr. Sunday 
to a further discussion of the subject. And Mr. Sun- 
day was quite willing to talk about it. 

There are 6,000,000 women and girls working for 
a livelihood in this country, he statistically declared 
to the reporter. 

He urged that the working woman fills an im- 
portant place in the industrial and business life of the 
country. "Take them out of the offices, mills, factor- 
ies and stores, and you'll miss them quickly enough. 
These 6,000,000 women so engaged were advanced as 
one of Mr. Sunday's reasons for granting the franchise 
to women. — South Bend Tribune. 

Sunday's sermon to women only 

There are married women who shrink from ma- 
ternity, not because of ill health, but simply because 
they love ease and fine garments, and hanker to flit like 
butter-flies at some fool social function. 



218 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Malpractice should be treated the same as any- 
other class of murderers. 

There isn't an angel in heaven who wouldn't be 
tickled to death to come down to earth and be hon- 
ored with motherhood. 

No wonder the men go to their clubs, with these 
women bumming around bridge parties, gadding and 
fondling pet dogs. No man wants to play second fid- 
dle to a bow-legged bull pup. You may bet your sweet 
life I wouldn't. 

Many girls who marry are not actuated by the 
noblest of human motives but are simply seeking a 
good time, and are willing to pay the price. 

You mothers are fools to force your daughters to 
marry some old lobster simply because he has money, 
and when he dies your girl will be able to ride in a 
buzz wagon instead of hot-footing it. You're fools. 

Some mothers will find that it would have been 
far easier to have buried their girls than to have mar- 
ried them to some damnable, cigaret-smoking, cursing 
libertine. 

The devil and the women can damn the world. 

If a God-fearing man marries a God-fearing wo- 
man they will have God-fearing children. 

I tell you, the virtue of womanhood is the ram- 
part of civilization. You break that down and you 
pave the way to hell. 

There are 60,000 girls ruined in America every 
year. A man caught dealing in white slavery should 
be shot on the spot. 

Society has just about put maternity out of busi- 
ness. And when you stop to consider the average 



EPISODES^ INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 219 

society woman. I do not think that maternity has 
lost anything. 

Look at the girls on the auction block daily. Look 
at the awful battle the average stenographer and the 
average clerk has to fight. You cannot wear fine 
clothes daily on six dollars a week and be on the 
square as much as you are, without having people sus- 
picious. 

Sunday's journey through the bible 

Twenty odd years ago, with the Holy Spirit as my 
guide, I entered at the portico of Genesis and went 
into the art gallery of the Old Testament where, on 
the wall, hung the pictures of Enoch, Noah, Jacob, 
Abraham, Elijah, David, Daniel, and other famous 
prophets of old. Then I passed into the Music Room 
of the Psalms where the Spirit swept the keyboard of 
my nature and brought forth the dirgelike wail of the 
Weeping Prophet, Jeremiah, to the grand exultant 
strain of the 24th Psalm and where every reed and 
pipe in God's great organ of nature seemed to respond 
to the tuneful harp of David as he played for King 
Saul in his melancholy moods. Next I passed into 
the business office of Proverbs, and into the Chapel of 
Ecclesiastics, where the voice of the Preacher was 
heard; then over into the conservatory of the Songs 
of Solomon where the Lily of the Valley and the Rose 
of Sharon and the sweet-scented spices perfumed my 
life. Then I stepped into the prophetic room and saw 
telescopes of various sizes, some pointing to far ofi: 
stars or events and others to nearby stars, but all con- 
centrated upon the bright and Morning Star which 
was to rise above the moonlit hills of Judea while the 



220 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

Shepherds guarded their flocks by night. From there 
I passed into the audience room and caught a vision 
of the King from the standpoint of Matthew, Mark, 
Luke and John. I then went into the Acts of the 
Apostles where the Holy Spirit was doing His office 
work in the formation of the Infant Church. From 
there I went to the correspondence room where Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James and Jude 
sat at their desks, penning their epistles to the church. 
Then I passed last of all into the throne of Revelation 
and saw the King sitting high upon His throne where 
I fell at his feet and cried, "God be merciful to me, 
a sinner." 

SUNDAY ON AMUSEMENTS 

The theater, as conducted today, is one of the rot- 
tenest institutions outside of hell. 

The dance is the moral graveyard of many in- 
nocent girls. 

Passion is the basis of the popularity of the 
dance. 

If you make women dance by themselves and men 
with the men the dance would stop in two weeks. 

The gambler played his first game in a church 
member's home. 

Three-fourths of the girls who are ruined in 
New York each got their downfall in the dance. 

The dance is not an innocent amusement. It 
sends thousands of girls to their downfall. 

A dancing church member is not a soul winner 
member. 

The dance permits and allows freedom that will 
be such as to allow divorce anywhere else. 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 221 

If it wasn't for the church members there would 
not be a saloon in existence today. 

The church bars are so low down that most any 
old hog with three suits and a bank account can get 
inside. 

I would rather be a chambermaid in a livery stable 
than a caller for a dance. 

Card playing is the most insidious contribution 
of vice in the world today. 

Cards and the dance are doing more to stifle the 
spiritual life of the church than do the saloons. 

I have more respect for a hog who gambles in 
Monte Carlo than for a woman who plays for a prize 
in her home. 

I don't think much of a preacher who condemns 
the police for not stopping gambling and yet don't 
say anything against card playing in the homes. 

There is more damnation in the average club 
than in any other public institution I know. 

The Christian homes are often the kindergarten 
of gambling hells. 

No man believes more in amusement than I do but 
I like that which recreates and does not tear down 
right inclinations. 

There is as much difference bet wen a game of 
cards and authors as there is between hell and heaven. 

Sunday's dream of heaven 

"Some years ago, after I had been romping and 
playing with the children," he said, "I grew tired 
and lay down, and half awake and half asleep, I had 
a dre^rti. 



222 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

"I dreamed I was in a far off land; it was not 
Persia, but all the glitter and gaudy raiment was 
there; It was not India, although her coral strands 
were there; it was not Ceylon, although all the beau- 
ties of that island of paradise were there; it was not 
Italy, although the soft dreamy haze of the blue Ital- 
ian skies shone above me. I looked for weeds and 
briers, thorns and thistles and brambles and found 
none. I saw the sun in all its regal splendor and 
I said to the people : 'A\'hen will the sun set and it 
grow dark?' They all laughed and said: 'It never 
grows dark in this land; there is no night here.' I 
looked at the people, their faces wreathed in a sim- 
ple halo of glory, attired in holiday clothing. I said: 
'When will the working men go by clad in overalls? 
And where are the brawny men who work and toil 
over the anvil ?' They said : 'We toil not, neither 
do we spin ; there remaineth a rest for the people of 
God.' 

'T strolled out in the suburbs. I said : 'W^here 
are the graveyards, the grave diggers? Where do 
you bury your dead ?' They said 'We never die here.' 

"I looked out and saw the towers and spires : I 
looked at them., but I did not see any tombstones, 
mausoleums, nor green nor flower-covered graves. I 
said: 'Where, where, are the hearses that carry your 
dead? ^^'here are the undertakers that embalm the 
dead?' They said: 'We never die in this land.' I 
said : 'AMiere are hospitals where they take the sick ? 
Where are the surgeons that come with scalpel and 
knife? Where is the minister, and where are the 
nurses to give the gentle touch, the penacea?' They 
said : 'We never grow sick in this land.' I said : 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 223 

'Where are the houses of want and squalor? Where 
live the poor?' They said: 'There is no penury; 
none die here; none ever cry for bread in this land.' 
I was bewildered. I strolled along and heard the rip- 
ple of the waters as the waves broke against the 
jeweled beach. I saw boats with oars tipped with 
silver, bow of pure gold. I saw multitudes that no 
man could number. We all jumped down through 
the violets and varicolored flowers, the air pulsing 
with bird song, and I cried: 'Are — all — here?' And 
they echoed back : 'All — are — here.' 

"And we went leaping and shouting and vied with 
tower and spire, and they all caroled and sung my 
welcome, and we all bounded and leaped and shouted 
with glee : 'Home — Home — Home.' " 

Sunday's estimate of solomon 

Solomon, acording to Sunday, was a millionaire 
baby, born with a golden diamond-plated spoon in his 
mouth, who developed into a thirty-third degree sport 
— having taken all the regular degrees and invented a 
few of his own. He was surrounded by high-brow 
courtiers until he drank dry the well of knowledge 
and pulled out the pump. Even as a kid he was so 
precocious that he exhausted the curriculum and gave 
his teachers nervous headaches. And after he had 
finished his schooling he cut loose on sport until he 
made a good world series ball fan look like a clothing 
store dummy. 

He drove his diamond-studded chariot so fast 
that he woud have dusted the eyes of Barney Old- 
field. He set the bleachers crazy as he galloped by. 



224 REV, BILLY SUNDAY 

And as a side line he started into the matrimonial 
market and with his 700 wives and 300 concubines 
made Brigham Young look like a dirty deuce. 

Taking to wine, he hit the booze as it has never 
since been hit. He had all the grapes of his kingdom 
crushed into a great lake of wine, millions of gallons. 
He took up architecture as a side hne, and built his 
temple 30 times as large as the tabernacle. He had 
so much gold dumped at his feet every year that he 
could have bought and sold Columbus a few times 
and never missed it. He was no bum panhandling 
for a hand-out or mooching for a flapjack. Not on 
your life. He had so much coin that R. G. Dun or 
Bradstreet would have needed new rating symbols. 
After running the extreme gamut of human pleasure 
he found he needed something else. ''What profit has 
a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun," 
he wrote. — Columbus Dispatch. 

BIBLE VERSION SUNDAy's VERSION 

5. And the people spake The Jews were in Egyptian 
against God and against Mo- bondage for years. God said 
ses. Wherefore have ye He would release them, but 
brought us up out of Egypt to He hadn't come. But God 
die in. the wilderness for there never forgets. So he came 
is no bread, neither is there and chose Moses to lead them, 
any water ; and our soul and when Moses got them out 
loatheth this light bread. in the wilderness they began. 

6. And the Lord sent fiery to knock and said, "Who is 
serpents among the people, this Moses anyway, we don't 
and they bit the people; and know him. Were there not 
much people of Israel died. enough graves in Egypt ?" and 

7. Therefore the people they said they didn't like the 
came to Moses and said. We white bread they were getting 
have sinned for we have and wanted the onions and 



EPISODES, INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 



225 



spoken against the Lord and 
against thee; pray unto the 
Lord that he take away the 
serpents from us. And Moses 
prayed for the people. 

8. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, Make thee a fiery ser- 
pent, and set it upon a pole, 
and it shall come to pass that 
every one that is bitten, when 
he looketh upon it, shall live. 

9. And Moses made a ser- 
pent of brass and put it upon 
a pole and it came to pass, 
that if a serpent had bitten 
any man, when he beheld the 
serpent of brass, he lived. 



the leeks and the garlic and 
melons of Egypt, and they 
found fault and God sent the 
serpents and was going to 
kill them all, but Moses inter- 
ceded and said, "Now see 
here God." But the Lord 
said, "Get out of the way, 
Moses, and let me kill them 
all." But Moses said, "Hold 
on. there. Lord. That bunch 
would have the laugh on You 
if You did that. They'd say 
You brought them out here 
and the commissary stores ran 
out and You couldn't feed 
them, so You just killed them 
all." So God said, "All right, 
for your sake, Moses, I 
won't," and He said, "Moses 
you go and set up a brazen 
serpent in the wilderness and 
that will be the one thing that 
will save them if they are bit- 
ten. They must look or die." 



PARAPHRASE OF FEEDING THE MULTITUDES 



SUNDAY S VERSION 

"When the disciples saw the 
great crowd gathered to see 
Jesus and saw they were hun- 
gry they were scared silly. 
Finally they went to Jesus 
with their trouble and said, 
"Lord, send them away. We 
can't feed them all." But 
Jesus told Philip to feed them. 

That was too much for 
*16 



MATTHEW S VERSION 

"And when it was evening, 
His disciples came to Him, 
saying : This is a desert place, 
and the time is now past; 
send the multitude away that 
they may go into the villages, 
and buy themselves victuals. 

"But Jesus said unto them. 
They need not depart; give ye 
them to eat. 



226 



REV. BILLY SUNDAY 



poor, old, practical Philip. 
"Why, we haven't an)rthing to 
feed them with," he informed 
Jesus. "Two hundred penny- 
worth of bread wouldn't feed 
all that hungry crowd." 

But Jesus looked around 
and spied a little boy whose 
ma had given him five bis- 
cuits and a couple of sardines 
for his lunch, and said to him, 
"Come here, son, the Lord 
wants you." Then He told 
the lad what He wanted, and 
the boy said, "It isn't much, 
Jesus, but what there is you're 
mighty welcome to it !" 

So Jesus took the biscuits 
and the sardines and fed that 
whole bunch and they all had 
all they wanted, and after 
they got through the disciples 
went around and picked up 
twelve baskets ful of the frag- 
ments. 

Then the evangelist pointed 
the moral, "You can't all be 
Peters and James and Johns, 
but you can all be barley 
loaves and fishes for God." 



And they said unto Him, 
We have here but five loaves 
and two fishes. 

"He said. Bring them hither 
to Me. 

"And He commanded the 
multitude to sit down on the 
grass, and took the five 
loaves, and the two fishes, and 
looked up to heaven. He 
blessed, and brake, and gave 
the loaves to His disciples, 
and the disciples to the multi- 
tude. 

"And they all did eat and 
were filled and they took up 
the fragments that remained 
twelve baskets full. 

"And they that had eaten 
were about five thousand men, 
besides women and children." 



SUNDAY^S TRIBUTE TO GENERAL LEE 

''At the beginning of the civil war General Robert 
E. Lee said to General Scott that he was a Union 
man at heart, but that his native state of Virginia 
had seceded and that as a loyal son he felt he must 
cast his fortunes with the Confederacy. As the war 
proceeded, Lee saw the bright hopes of the Confed- 



EPISODES^ INCIDENTS, COMMENT, ETC. 227 

eracy fade, saw its government overturned and broken 
at his feet. When the end came he was a prematurely 
old man, his health fled, his fortune gone, his property 
at Arlington confiscated. At that time of despair 
there came to him the officers of the Louisiana Lot- 
tery company, offering to make him its president. 

'' 'But, gentlemen,' he said, 'I don't know any- 
thing about the lottery business.' 

" 'That makes no difference,' they said, 'we do. 
We want the use of your name, and we will give you 
$10,000 a year.' 

"General Lee buttoned his coat over his sunken 
breast, brushed back his gray hair from his forehead, 
and said: 'Gentlemen, my good name and self re- 
spect are all that is saved from the wreck, and they 
are not for sale. You cannot buy Robert E. Lee.' 

"My father was a Union soldier. I am a loyal 
American, but I say that Robert E. Lee was one of 
the noblest Christian characters this country has ever 
produced, and that Stonewall Jackson was another." 

Sunday's tribute to Lincoln 

The Angels said, "let us hide Abraham Lincoln 
where the world will never find him," and they hid 
his big, kind, generous, humanitarian, sympathetic, 
God-fearing soul in that long, lean, lank, homely, 
gaunt, ungainly body. They bronzed his cheeks until 
he looked like an Indian. They hardened his hands 
with toil. For employment they gave him common 
work, the poling a flatboat on the Ohio river and 
clerking in a country store. 

But, zuhile drifting down the stream, he was 
solving problems that would help him up the stream. 



228 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

And while clerking in the country store he was learn- 
ing whole chapters from the book of human expe- 
rience which became golden rounds in the ladder of 
fame up which he climbed to the top. 

For parents, they gave him common people whose 
names were unknown five miles away; for a home, 
a log cabin in the wilderness. The battle would grow 
hard. He would grit his teeth, buckle up his yarn 
galluses a little tighter and determine that he would 
be somebody, anyway. He would spread the ashes 
thin on the dirt floor of his log cabin home and, with 
a hickory log in the fireplace for a light and a hickor\' 
stick for a pencil, he solved problems from Euclid 
and read the life of AA'ashington and other great men. 

Finally, the angels could keep him hid no longer, 
so one morning this old sleepy, dreamy, drowsy world 
rolled out of bed, rubbed her eyes and started on a 
still hunt for a great man. She struck a new scent 
and a new trail that led out through the woods into 
the wilderness and up a hill to a log cabin. She 
rapped at the door and Lincoln arose — so big, so high, 
so tall that the logs rolled down the roof and fell oflF 
and he stepped forth — a giant among men. Fame has 
placed him upon a pinnacle so lofty that he looks down 
upon all who attem.pt to reach his side. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED IN "SPECTACU- 
LAR CAREER OF REV. BILLY 
SUNDAY." 



F. J. Sessions, Superintendent, Soldiers' Orphans' Home, 
Davenport, Iowa. 

S. W. Pierce (Superintendent of the S. O. Home when 
Sunday was there), Davenport, Iowa. 

Charles H. Hall (Mayor) Nevada, Iowa. 

Dr. Nathan Wilbur Helm, Principal Evanston Academy, 
Evanston, Illinois. 

Dr. Robert McWatty Russell, Westminster College, New 
Wilmington, Pa. 

Frank C. Richter, Editor Sporting Life, Philadelphia, Pa. 

L. Wilbur Messer, General Secretary, Young Men's 
Christian Association, Chicago, Illinois. 

Judge H. E. Burgess, Aledo, Illinois. 

N. W. Rowell, Afton, Iowa. 

Rev. J. W. Neyman, Bedford, Iowa. 

Rev. C John, Maryville, Missouri. 

Editor, Gazette, Sterling, Illinois. 

Editor, News, Atlantic, Iowa. 

Editor, Leader, Pontiac, Illinois. 

C. F. McFarland, Keokuk, Iowa. 

Editor, Record, Canon City, Colorado. 

Editor, Journal, Macomb, Illinois. 

W. H. Davidson, Managing Editor, Burlington Hawkeye, 
Burlington, Iowa. 

A. P. Gove, Editor, Rochester Daily Bulletin, Rochester, 
Minnesota. 

H. U. Bailey, Editor, Bureau County Republican, Prince- 
ton, Illinois. 

Editor, Herald, Austin, Minnesota. 

F. C. Woody, Cashier, First National Bank, Salida, 
Colorado. 

229 



230 REV. BILLY SUNDAY 

W. W. Whipple, Editor, Galesburg Mail, Galesburg, 
Illinois. 

Frank D. Throop, Publisher, Muscatine Journal, Musca- 
tine, Iowa. 

J. L. Scofield, General Secretary, Young Men's Christian 
Association, Bloomington, Illinois. 

W. F. Hardy, Editor, The Herald, Decatur, Illinois. 

Ralph W. Roberts, Secretary, Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, Sharon, Pa. 

E. P. Canny, Ottumwa Courier, Ottumwa, Iowa. 

Editor, Jacksonville Journal, Jacksonville, Illinois. 

Rev. Conrad Bluhm, Pastor Centenary Presbyterian 
Church, Spokane, Washington. 

Secretary, Young Men's Christian Association, Boulder, 
Colorado. 

W. G. Young, Editor Cedar Rapids Gazette, Cedar Rapids, 
Iowa. 

E. L. McKelvey, Youngstown, Ohio. 
Editor, Herald, New Castle, Pa. 

Edgar W. Cooley, Waterloo Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa. 

James Pfeiffer, Portsmouth, Ohio. 

Rev. T. H. Campbell, Pastor King Avenue Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Columbus, Ohio. 

L. J. Beecher, City Editor, Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio. 

Editor, Herald, Erie, Pa. 

James S. Webb, Springfield, Ohio. 

Rev. Andrew Brodie, Wichita, Kansas. 

Rev. Jay W. Somerville, Pastor St. Paul M. E. Church, 
Wichita, Kansas. 

Wm. A. Ernst, Canton Repository, Canton, Ohio. 

Charles E. Miner, Wheeling, W. Va. 

Rev. W. S. Dysinger, Pastor First English Lutheran 
Church, Wheeling, W. Va. 

Ralph R. Wolf, Secretary Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, Fargo, N. D. 

Rev. George B. Laird, Beaver Falls, Pa. 

F. S. Reader, Editor, Beaver Valley News, Beaver Falls, 
Pa. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED 231 

C. V. Talbot, Managing Editor, Morning Tribune, East 
Liverpool, Ohio. 

Rev. W. M. Randies, Pastor Bethesda Congregational 
Church, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 

Wilbur R. Armstrong, South Bend Tribune, South Bend, 
Indiana. 

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, 3 Park Gardens, W., Glasgow, 
Scotland. 

Melvin E. Trotter, City Rescue Mission, Grand Rapids, 
Michigan. 

Fred G. Fischer, 808 Edgecomb Place, Chicago, Illinois. 

G. Walter Barr, Keokuk, Iowa. 

Miss Julia Brandon Cole, South Bend Tribune, South 
Bend, Indiana. 

E. Kenneth Todd, South Bend Tribune, South Bend, In- 
diana. 

Steubenville Gazette, Steubenville, Ohio. 



PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDS CON- 
SULTED. 



Records, County Clerk's Office, Cook County, Illinois. 
Hampton's Magazine, June 1910. 
American Magazine, September 1907. 
Collier's National Weekly, Spring of 1913. 
Who's Who, Volume 7. 

The Congregationalist & Christian World, April 24, 1913. 
Life and Labors of W. A. Sunday. 

Records, United States War Department, Washington, 
D. C. 



DEC 20 1913 



